Old Souls
by JFalcon
Summary: The Sequel to New Blood; Four years have passed since Sound conquered the five Great Nations and sent the ninja of Konoha into hiding. Now it's time to return to retake their home and their world, but can they really trust their allies?
1. New Age

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto, or any of the characters, places, or events from Naruto. This story is entirely fictitious, and unless _specifically _noted otherwise is in no way based on real persons, places, or events. Any similarity is unintentional.

**Note: **The sequel of the monster sized fan fiction New Blood, a next generation story depicting the Konoha Twelve and Suna Trio as the heads of their own Genin teams, this story picks up four years after that one leaves off, if you're a new reader the first chapter (this is the prologue) will contain more information on the setting itself.

Also, because it is relevant to many people, I will warn you ahead of time that this story contains the Shikamaru and Temari pairing, both Sasuke-Sakura and Sasuke-Karin will be hinted at, Neji-Tenten, Naruto-Hinata, Anko-Kakashi, Kankuro-OC, Ino-Chouji, and probably some I'm forgetting. If any of those are a problem tough because I will not change them, the story also contains a fairly large cast of Original Characters, you've been warned.

* * *

**Old Souls**

**First Scroll: Recovery**

**Prologue**

Sasuke stood near the front of the ship, his black robes wrapped tightly around himself, his hood covering his oh so recognizable face.

The ship they sailed on had a small crew and a rather small storage capacity, below decks, where the majority of Sasuke's band of rebels hid, there was barely enough room for everyone.

Luckily it was just a short trip from the Land of Waves to the island chain that made up the Land of Waters, and the small secluded island to which the refugees of the Leaf Village had escaped when Konoha had been besieged and conquered four years ago.

With the blessings of the Mizukage and to a lesser degree the Lord of the Land of Waters the refugees had settled on one of the smaller islands in what was becoming known as the village _exiled _to shadows, rather than the village hidden in them. Konoha's survivors and refugees had been trying to rebuild their lives and plotting to retake their true home ever since.

Sasuke hadn't gone with them then, he hadn't been ready to admit defeat and retreat to the secret protection of one of Konoha's longtime rivals, and so with the help of Hijiri Hitomi he'd stayed on the mainland, seeking out any lost Konoha ninja, and he'd found quite a few all things considered.

The night before in fact, he'd found Neji, who had himself been plotting a way to get to the island, he had remained behind as well traveling with and protecting his cousin Hinata, but apparently Hinata had ordered him to report to Gaara and Shikamaru in the village exiled, she herself had taken refuge along with Hanabi in Kumogakure.

Sasuke assumed if Hinata and Hanabi were moving their proverbial pieces across the board the time to attack had to be close, and so he'd decided that he too would go to the village and with him his small band of outlaw ninja.

So they'd caught a ride with Ito Yoshi, general of the Land of Water and his family who were vacationing in the Wave Country. It had taken some negotiating but in the end the man had agreed he would take Sasuke's band to the village but Sasuke himself would be going to the Water Country's capital city to meet the Daimyo and Mizukage, which Sasuke had intended anyway.

Most of his ninja were below decks staying well out of the way of the small vessel's ten man crew, but Neji and wanted to come up and since Sasuke had no technical authority over him he hadn't argued the matter, Hitomi on the other hand couldn't be kept below decks, even though Sasuke _did_ have authority over her.

To Sasuke, who'd been on boats before, and to the medic Endo Hayato who had grown up in Kirigakure the boat ride was kind of a big nothing, but for Hitomi, who had, it seemed, never actually been on the high seas before . . .

"Over the side! Over the side!" The ship's captain shouted.

Endo was leaning against the port rail casually whilst Sasuke's subordinate Hijiri Hitomi leaned over the side in misery.

"Had no idea you'd get seasick." The medic said with a slight smirk.

"I don't--ugh--usually." Hitomi grumbled, "Can't you _do _something--uck--about it?"

"Probably, but why bother? It's much more entertaining seeing you puke your guts out. Besides just think, you're feeding the fish." The Water Country doctor said, giving the Konoha ninja an affectionate pat on the back.

"I'll kill you in your sleep." Hitomi said crossly.

"At least you managed to say it without vomiting." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"We're being intercepted." Neji said, porting from the crows nest where he'd been observing their surroundings and appearing next to Sasuke.

Sasuke sighed. His small army of ninja, only eight strong apart from himself, Neji and Hitomi, were in poor shape to take on a dedicated enemy.

Of the crew only Neji, Hitomi and Sasuke were Jounin, the rest were a mixture of Chuunin and Genin who'd survived not only the fall of Konoha, but the ninja hunters that had spent the last four years seeking out any ninja and anyone who might _possibly _be a ninja and dragging them off to Orochimaru to suffer who knew what kind of torments.

"This close to the village it's probably just one of Kirigakure's watch ships." Sasuke said.

"That doesn't concern you?" Neji asked.

"It's been worked out." Endo said calmly, "The Village Exiled would have been destroyed long ago if Mist weren't secretly their ally, Mist keeps its ships on watch to make sure that the Shogunate doesn't find their village. The Mizukage is really quite fond of you exiles. Their ship will come about next to ours, they'll see we have the Taisho with us, realize we're friendly and leave us to go about our business.

"Yes . . . If they're Water country soldiers that's exactly what they'll do." Sasuke said calmly, "but since they're more likely to be Mist village ninja . . . well they're far more likely to--"

"Now!" Hitomi shouted, leaping back from the edge and shoving Endo to the ground as something leapt out of the water near them.

It was a masked ninja from the village hidden in Mist, four more leapt onto the ship from the water, the one that had come aboard first hefted a massive sword, though Sasuke could tell he wasn't one of Mists's Swordsmen, just someone who favored the fighting style, probably a Chuunin since he was the first aboard, he was the most expendable.

He swung his sword, nearly cutting Hitomi in half but she leapt up, landed on the blade knocking it out of the ninja's hands.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan, Hitomi probably started using her Kekkei Genkai and he heard Neji snap "Byakugan!"

The head general of the Lands of Water, their escort for this journey, stepped up from below decks, bow in hand. "I see, I thought we'd be spotted about now. Now lads, I'm sure you realize just by looking into the eyes of these three how utterly doomed you are so what say we talk this out?"

Sasuke smirked when one of the ninja, a woman with long hair suddenly folded her arms and said "I knew it was Sasuke-kun from the start . . . I just wanted to see if he was on his toes."

"Karin . . ." Sasuke said with a slight sigh, "I'm surprised to see you here in Mist uniform."

"Hmm. Suigetsu's offer was better than Kabuto's, and I have total command of the dragnet around the forbidden island so I don't have to put up with his lordship in person, just the odd vague communiqué." Karin said simply.

Sasuke smirked. He recalled when he learned that Suigetsu had become Mizukage, that he'd expressed interest in recruiting Sasuke, having wanted to round up "the old team" again.

Sasuke had suspected Suigetsu must have found Juugo, but he'd assumed Karin would have thrown in with Sound again, especially with Orochimaru back in the flesh so to speak.

It was a relief of sorts to see she had not, and yet at the same time it was unsettling that she, someone whose loyalty might be somewhat questionable, would be given such an important rank and position.

"We'll guide your ship in," Karin said, "how many are disembarking?"

"Myself, three civilians and ten ninja, "Endo said calmly.

The bright red haired kunoichi raised an eyebrow, "That's impressive, three squads, a small army."

"Well you know, ninja don't grow on trees these days." Sasuke said calmly, "it was important to find as many as we could."

Karin shrugged, "I would have been helpful in that endeavor, you should have sought me out. I'd have taken a chance to work with you over a chance to work for Suigetsu anyday."

"We didn't exactly have time to plan who would and wouldn't come," Sasuke said evasively, "besides I didn't know where you were. You made yourself awfully scarce during the war."

"Didn't I though?" Karin smirked.

Sasuke glanced at Hitomi and said "We'll be arriving soon, get everyone ready."

"M-me?" Hitomi complained, "But what if I--"

"Take a bucket." Endo suggested and Sasuke nodded, indicating that that was indeed what Hitomi should do.

He didn't need his second in command making a fool of herself, not in front of Karin. He'd show this woman no weakness, and no trust.

* * *

Shikamaru eyed his opponent levelly, she'd already lost she just didn't realize it yet.

Or . . . knowing Temari she _did _realize it, and refused to admit it.

Either way it was fun watching her glare over the board and him and attempt to make a move that wouldn't benefit his grand scheme. Even so Shikamaru was able to keep his face impassive, and that, he knew, drove her absolutely crazy.

She was used to opponents who gave things away with their expressions, Shikamaru used to lure her into traps by using false expressions but she'd gotten wise to it and so he'd just stopped showing any outward reaction whatsoever to whatever move she made, and so far it was working rather well.

Temari glared at the board and said "Y'know it's a good thing you've got so much time to play board games. I mean it isn't like we're stranded on some island with a massive empire surrounding us waiting to move in and wipe us out."

"Says the woman also playing a board game." Shikamaru said simply.

"I'm just a soldier, not the chief strategist." Temari said with a shrug, "Gaara is depending on you, we all are, and yet here you are playing games with your wife."

Shikamaru yawned, "It helps me focus. Orochimaru had years to plan his strategy to take over the world, and just because I'm smart doesn't mean I'm the smartest person in the world, for all we know Orochimaru might still be smarter."

"That's not even funny." Temari said grimly, "We can't afford that, if Konoha and Suna are going to be rebuilt and the five nations restored you need to be smarter than Kabuto and Orochimaru together, you need to help us defeat them."

Shikamaru shook his head slowly, "Yeah, and you need to make a move."

Temari sighed, "What are you going to do, wait for Orochimaru and Kabuto to die of old age?" Temari scoffed.

Shikamaru was curious as to what Temari meant to accomplish with this conversation.

She was probably stalling for time, so he decided to humor her whilst glancing at the board and very noticeably averting his eyes from particular piece he wanted her to move in a subtle attempt to draw her attention to it.

"What can I possibly do against the Shogun and the Emperor? They have resources I don't, numbers, and worst of all faith. Orochimaru is revered as a god, what can I do to a man who commands that level of loyalty? His followers would throw their lives away for him."

"Well if Sand and Leaf can't stop him who can? Are we supposed to just give up? We have over a hundred ninja here, that's got to count for something." Temari said.

Shikamaru shrugged, "One hundred forty nine to be precise, and we'll have about eighteen more Genin if we graduate the entire class."

"So do it." Temari said with a shrug, "Genin aren't to be underestimated, they could be the difference between victory and defeat."

Shikamaru shook his head, "On top of that every man in the village is a member of Taisho Akira's militia, but that just means that if we're attacked they're capable of defending the village, less than a third of them would actually be able to march if we launched an invasion."

"So don't count on them," Temari shrugged, "this should be a ninja affair anyway, soldiers would just get in our way."

Shikamaru shrugged, "Perhaps most importantly, Naruto hasn't returned yet."

Temari scowled, "He's one man, you can't just stand around waiting for him. Wouldn't it be better to defeat Orochimaru now and . . . when Naruto comes back the world will be proper again."

Shikamaru noted the way Temari had paused, she'd had to remind herself to say "when" instead of "if" Naruto came back.

Konoha's Twelve ninja were somewhat scattered. Kiba had gone missing during the evacuation of Konoha, Shino and Sai had gone out to find him and hadn't reported back in three months, all three of them were presumed killed in action, though Shikamaru doubted the enemy would be able to keep quiet about something that major.

Sasuke had run off to wage his own war on Orochimaru when Konoha fell, Tenten, Neji and Hinata had ended up in Kumogakure with Hanabi, which meant that Naruto might be there too, but it was doubtful.

Since both the Raikage and Orochimaru wanted the nine tails chakra Naruto wouldn't be safe in Kumo or anywhere else since everywhere else was now Sound Country.

Lee, Ino, Chouji and Sakura were in the village along with Shikamaru. Half of the Konoha Twelve were present and ready to do Kabuto some damage when the time came and the time was rapidly coming.

Regardless of what he told Temari Shikamaru _had _finalized his initial plans.

He'd spoken with Nao's sister Emiko, and she guessed that soon some of the things he needed before he could move would arrive.

And that's exactly when his daughter Sumiko came running up the dirt road to their small home.

"Boat!" She shouted as she came into earshot.

"What boat?" Temari asked.

"Boat . . . Taisho . . . Ito . . ." Sumiko panted, holding her side.

Temari sighed, Shikamaru said "I guess we'd better get to the docks to welcome such an illustrious visitor."

Temari scoffed, "Stand up and you admit defeat in this game."

Shikamaru smirked at her and stood up, "I forfeit. Time to start playing with real armies, my dear."

"Thank heaven." Temari sighed, and stood up, "Alright let's go."

**To Be Continued . . .**


	2. The Youth

**Chapter One**

Konohamaru watched as Ishida Naomasa leapt over a rotting log and managed to clear a puddle and avoid making a noisy splash.

Silently he ran through the small woods of the island, and then leapt up into the air, landing on a tree trunk and sticking to it with his chakra, he crept backwards up the trunk, eyeing the ground, probably looking for Konohamaru or--

Like lightning she fell from the tree above him, landing on his back and causing him to lose his footing. He twisted his head to look at her as they plummeted towards the ground.

Well, plummeted might have been a bit of a dramatization, but they definitely fell, and they definitely hit the ground harder than Konohamaru would have liked to himself.

Sarutobi Yomiko cushioned the landing with a wind style Feather Fall Jutsu, but it was just enough to prevent serious injury, not serious pain.

Nao groaned, pinned to the ground, Yomiko sat comfortably on his back, her feet keeping his hands down.

"Give." She said simply.

"Not happening." Nao grunted.

He tried kicking her but she just caught his foot with her hands and yanked on it, "Give." She repeated.

"I will be avenged!" Naomasa shouted, probably trying to get his teammate to rush in on his location.

"I already got Kyoko-san. Or at least cousin Konohamaru got her." Yomiko said, and Konohamaru emerged from his hiding place.

Naomasa groaned and then Konohamaru felt--

He leapt to the side and narrowly avoided the kunai that would have slammed into the small of his back, he spun around and saw Naomasa's shadow clone in the trees behind him.

He heard a noise behind him unlike the sound of a kunai hitting the ground and he realized he'd been duped.

He felt the second clone kick him roughly in the back as the first leapt out of the trees towards Yomiko who released Naomasa's foot to draw her knives and then got kicked by his other leg, throwing her forward, off of him.

Nao's clone landed near Naomasa, who rolled to his feet and grinned a cocky grin, "Give." He said simply.

Yomiko spun her chakra knives in her hands, they'd once belonged to her father Asuma.

They ignited with fire chakra, her hands became balls of flame as she rushed for Ishida Naomasa.

Konohamaru lunged forward too, he knew how to handle Ishida.

"Sexy Jutsu!" He shouted, transforming himself into a nude ninja centerfold.

There was a twist though, Konohamaru had chosen to make the face of his ninja centerfold that of his younger cousin Yomiko, he'd sensed Yomiko and Naomasa had a thing for each other.

Naomasa staggered and Yomiko dispatched his clone, though Konohamaru didn't miss the look she gave him as she did it.

There was murder in that girl's eyes.

Naomasa raised his hands in defense but Konohamaru's own shadow clone tackled him at the same time as Yomiko and he was helpless.

"I give!" Naomasa groaned.

Konohamaru laughed and raised his hand towards Yomiko for a high five, "Team Sarutobi all the way!"

"Never say the words "all the way" whilst impersonating my naked body!" Yomiko shouted, stepping away from Ishida and Konohamaru with a look of revulsion.

"Not quite _your _body," Kyoko said, emerging from the trees, "you're not as busty."

"And your butt is a lot flatter, you know like nonexistent." Konohamaru added, caressing his disguised form's rear end.

"Please get off me." Ishida said.

Yomiko's left eye was twitching, a sure sign of danger so Konohamaru figured he'd better get rid of the disguise but just then there was a puff of smoke and Yamanaka Ino appeared, "Shikamaru wants--whao!" She staggered back from Konohamaru, "What the--I'm sorry, I uh . . . I was told you guys were training and . . . wow I uh . . . wow. This uh, this never happened, I saw nothing uh . . . I uh . . . leaving! Yes, I'm leaving now and--"

Konohamaru sighed and dropped his disguise, the real Yomiko tapped Ino on the shoulder and said "It's just cousin Konohamaru's pervy Jutsu."

"I uh . . . I knew that . . ." Ino said in a tone that screamed relief more than anything else, "I mean . . . look, lets all just pretend this never happened."

"Nothing did happen." Konohamaru insisted.

"Other than us kicking their butts." Yomiko pointed out.

"Right, other than the Sarutobi clan thrashing these two, nothing happened." Konohamaru nodded.

"How did he even catch you, Kyoko-san? Your minions should have alerted you to any ambushes." Ishida grumbled. Kyoko was very quiet and eventually Naomasa sighed, "He used the male version on you, didn't he?"

"I love fighting teenagers, hormones all ablaze, the Jutsu is so much more effective." Konohamaru laughed.

"Two trick pony." Kyoko glowered.

Konohamaru kept laughing and said "Would you rather I go all Rasengan on you two?"

Ino broke into the argument, "No time. Shikamaru wanted me to tell you guys that a couple of ships are coming in, one is a Kiri patrol ship and the other is a vessel with the banner of a Water Country Taisho."

"Ito?" Ishida asked excitedly.

"That's the one. You know him?" Ino asked, then thought better of it, "never mind, Shikamaru wants you guys mixed into the crowd as security in case anything goes wrong, you girls on your regular duties."

"Why come for us specifically?" Konohamaru blinked.

"Who knows why Shikamaru does anything these days?" Ino shrugged, "I guess he just wants you guys nearby, he did train half of you after all."

Konohamaru nodded, Nara Shikamaru had been the Jounin sensei of his cousin Yomiko and her not quite boyfriend Ishida.

Kyoko, for that matter, was originally from Suna and had been trained by Shikamaru's wife Temari.

Kyoko and Yomiko were almost the same age, Kyoko being one year older, but they were very different in appearance. Yomiko had unruly and untamed black hair, her forehead protector kept her overlong bangs in check when she wore it, which was only during real missions, never during training, without it her bangs covered her left eye, though just seeing her right it was obvious she had eyes just like her mother, Kurenai.

Kyoko on the other hand seemed very proud of her long red hair. It was worn straight down her back, with two braids going over her shoulders, her bangs were properly trimmed and kept out of her green eyes. She was a little bit taller than Yomiko and Yomiko wasn't short, in fact Konohamaru would say that Kyoko was a little _too _tall, she was about the same height at Ishida, and he was pretty tall.

Yomiko wore a navy blue jumpsuit like those worn by Konoha ninja in the past. She wore two equipment belts, one at her waist and one across her right shoulder and mismatched armored bracers and shin guards on her arms and legs. She said she liked mismatching them to imply that she'd taken them from different foes, but actually neither of Shikamaru's students had seen real combat since they came to the island.

Kyoko's dress was more standard, she wore the gray jumpsuit that had become popular with the exiled village's Shinobi, and a Sunagakure flak jacket. She wore a large battle fan strapped to her back, her gloves and shoes were black, like most of the ninja in the village.

In fact the village wore so much black and gray that many had begun to affectionately call it the Village Hidden in Shadow.

But the ninja just called it the Village Exiled, some called it Exiled to Shadows but it wasn't encouraged or official. Officially the name was Freedom.

Konohamaru himself still wore the blue and green of Konoha, but in the long tradition of Leaf Village's lax dress standards Ishida, like Yomiko, didn't bother with it.

Ishida's shirt and pants were black, but he wore a white Nehru jacket with red trim and the Ishida clan's symbols also in red, on the back and shoulders.

The Ishida clan weren't ninja though, Naomasa was the only ninja representative of the entire clan. Instead the Ishida clan were the most influential merchants in the entire land, they had lost some of their power when the war ended and the Empire enacted some fairly harsh trade restrictions, but the clan retained much of its wealth and notability, so of all of them Naomasa looked the most like a civilian, the least threatening and therefore the most ninja like.

Yamanaka Ino looked much like she always had, which was to say gorgeous.

She also wasn't Yamanaka Ino anymore, though after three years Konohamaru had difficulty remembering that she was supposed to be called Akimichi Ino these days.

Ino was now over thirty and still beautiful, had had twins and still had a killer figure, Ino could probably walk through a firestorm and come out looking like she was ready for a photo shoot. She wore a civilian dress but she was still technically a duty ready Jounin, this was probably one of her days off.

Everyone in the village had several days off now that there weren't really any missions to undertake.

This had actually been Konohamaru's day off but Yomiko had asked him to train with them to prove that the Sarutobi clan was awesome because apparently Kyoko--who, like Ishida had no ninja heritage--had let slip some comment about a clan not making the ninja, which Ishida had agreed with but Yomiko, a proud Sarutobi, had refused to let go unchallenged.

It was mildly imbalanced on paper, Konohamaru was a Special Jounin and technically a Jounin though the line between the two ranks was so blurred that it didn't matter.

The kids were all Chuunin on the other hand so Ishida and Kyoko probably thought that Yomiko had stacked the deck, so to speak.

But Konohamaru wasn't totally convinced that the three Chuunin weren't ready for promotion, they were skilled, in a more lethal setting they might be at Jounin level.

The five ninja moved out for the docks, Konohamaru noted the very subtle sulking from Ishida and Kyoko and the way Yomiko sort of glowed with the flush of victory.

But he had to admit, he didn't agree with Yomiko's reasons for fighting.

The clan really didn't make the ninja, Ishida and Kyoko were proof of that as were several of Konoha's Legendary Twelve. Just because they lost didn't mean they weren't exceptionally skilled.

Of course with so few ninja left in the world pretty much anyone who could breathe fire seemed exceptional.

* * *

Ito Taiki, the son of Ito Yoshi looked over the edge of the ship as the vessel came closer and closer to the port.

His mother hugged him, he glanced at his father who wore his katana and his bow and quiver but not his armor since he'd left that behind in the capital city of the Water Country.

Tai watched Mi--er that is he watched Hitomi, her eyes were red again as she watched the city and the line of black armored Ashigaru and Samurai.

There were some civilians too, but Tai was impressed that there were actual Samurai in the village.

Wasn't this supposed to be a ninja village? "Are those real Samurai, like dad, or are they just ninja pretending?" Tai asked.

"They're real Samurai, one of them is married to you aunt Emiko." Mother said simply.

"Aunt Emiko?" Tai raised an eyebrow.

"We weren't able to really tell you before," Mother said simply, "you know I was originally from the Land of Fire, well when Konoha fell my brother and one of my sisters escaped to this village and I haven't seen or heard from them since. I'm so excited."

Brother? He had an uncle? He'd never known that, "Is my uncle a Samurai too?" Tai asked excitedly, "There, I think I see him there!" He said, pointing towards the line of Samurai, not actually pointing towards an individual, it was just his way of getting his mother to answer his question instead of saying something like "You'll see"

"You'll see," mother said with a slight smile.

He knew she'd say that.

Hitomi's eyes had reverted to being normal, which she'd told Tai wasn't actually "normal" for her, but something called a Genjutsu that made dealing with other people easier. She handed Saeki to mother, "Here, I might need my hands," she explained and Mother was only too happy to get to hold the tiny infant.

Hitomi moved her black goggles from her neck to her eyes, covering them up and went over to stand with Uchiha Sasuke as the ship came nearer to dock.

It almost looked like Uchiha's ninja were getting ready to fight . . .

The ship docked and everyone began to disembark, Father first, then the ninja.

The doctor, Endo Hayato took up the rear with Tai and his mother, and though Tai was still excited he was a little nervous too.

The ninja village's soldiers seemed just as ready to fight as Uchiha's ninja . . .

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note:** Thanks for all the reviews and interest so early into the story. I'll try to update each weekend, with the usual bonus chapter rules applying when I have chapters to give you. Remember to visit our message board (link is at the top of my profile page) and leave your input on what should go into the next Ninja Index.


	3. New Arrivals

**Note:** Well here's the 10-1 review to chapter ratio bonus chapter, thanks for all the support!

**Chapter Two**

Naomasa watched the ship sail in, and he thought for just a moment how different it was waiting for it when he knew someone he knew was disembarking.

Usually no one came off of the Mizu ships that guided vessels in, but this time a redheaded Kunoichi and four Jounin leapt from their boat, not bothering to wait for a ladder.

_Show offs._ Naomasa thought.

Nao had come to see several ships come in and he'd never really cared much, he was always glad to see new additions, usually soldiers but sometimes ninja, but it was also disappointing because the people he missed weren't on those boats.

He watched the people who were actually reunited with old friends and sometimes even family members and he always felt just a little envious. His family was all over, his friends, those that weren't in the village, were probably either dead or unable to come to the village.

Were his sisters safe? His parents were in Kirigakure so they were probably fine but so far as he knew his older sister Eri had never made it out of Konoha, his friend and teammate Kotaro had been captured while they'd tried to make their escape.

Apart from Kyoko all of Temari's team had also failed to make it out of Konoha, and even though he'd never been close to them he knew it bothered Kyoko and she probably hoped just a little bit at least, that either her friends Yukio or Ryu would come off one of those ships.

It bothered Yomiko too, the friends they didn't know about. She denied it but Kyoko had said that Yomiko and her teammate Yukio had been fairly close, or at least "as close as Yukio ever got to any girl" as she'd put it.

Those were the kinds of people he hoped to see come off the boats, people he knew and cared about, or people his friends knew or cared about, and so it was always a little depressing when standing guard at the peer went uneventfully. He and Yomiko were mixed into the crowd but since Kyoko was already mostly in uniform she was with the other ninja keeping an eye on things.

When everything was over Kyoko would give the new arrivals a tour, Yomiko would watch them and Naomasa would make a report to Shikamaru-sensei, but since Shikamaru-sensei was going to be personally present Naomasa's job would end once it was clear there was no military threat.

It was weird now, waiting for his sister's husband whom he kind of sort of knew. He figured since he'd be off duty when the detail was over he'd try to get information on Ichiteru from her husband if he could.

He watched the group disembark, knowing that this time at least one face would be familiar.

He was disguised as a civilian, standing with his older sister Emiko.

He had his hands in his pockets as he waited, mildly bored, for the ship to unload, though the trained ninja in him watched for any threatening detail, and paid close attention to the posture of the disembarking crew.

This was standard fare, when a ship came even though it must have made it through Kiri's guard ships, since Lord Gaara didn't totally trust the Mizukage, the village got up in arms to meet the new additions.

Lord Gaara, Emiko's husband Hirate Akira, Taisho of the village's Samurai and soldiers, and Shikamaru-sensei stepped forward to receive the new additions, who also had three individuals step forward.

Naomasa was near enough to see that one of them was a Hyuga, closer inspection told him it was Hyuga Neji,

That was major.

Neji? Then the others were probably from Kumogakure or something.

He strained to see, "What is it?" Emiko asked, but Nao didn't answer.

He stared dumbfounded, "It's Uchiha! It's Sasuke Uchiha!" Someone in the crowd shouted, and the crowd went into an uproar as the three individuals, Ito Yoshi, Nao's brother-in-law, Hyuga Neji, one of the Konoha legends, and Uchiha Sasuke, a man said to be on par with Uzumaki Naruto himself were greeted by the villages' leaders.

The crowd normally watched the boat to see who else got off but this time the small village's populace followed the legends as they walked towards the meeting hall.

Nao and Yomiko however did not, they, along with the other ninja in charge of security, remained behind to watch the remaining refugees.

Kyoko would be playing tour guide, she'd show everyone around and help get them settled, Yomiko would make sure nothing unwanted went down by tailing the group, and Nao who could no longer really hide in the crowd, decided he might as well help Miko-chan with her chore.

He took his forehead protector out of his pocket and tied it around his forehead and approached the group of disembarked passengers.

He noted that few of them looked familiar, so probably not all had been ninja of the hidden leaf village.

But one face was familiar, one jumped out at him.

"Emi-chan! Nao-chan!" A woman dressed in rather simple but clearly expensive travel clothes cried.

She looked a lot like Emiko, they had similar faces, they both had long auburn hair, wore nice but not flashy clothing, and both were the wives of powerful Samurai.

But while Emi had their mother's blue eyes, their eldest sister, like Naomasa himself, had their father's brown eyes.

She rushed towards them, Yomiko tried to stop her at first then decided against it.

Ichiteru wrapped one arm around Naomasa, in the other she held a small baby, so Emiko had to wait until their sister was done hugging Nao before she got a hug herself.

"Don't uh-don't hug me like that!" Naomasa said, he could _feel _himself blushing.

"What, am I embarrassing you in front of all the other ninja?" Ichiteru laughed, releasing them.

Yomiko smirked at him, now he _knew _he was blushing, and luckily Ichiteru didn't point it out the way their mother would have.

She turned her free arm to hugging Emiko, who asked her "Who's this?"

Nao noted the boy in the crowd, he was maybe six or seven years old . . .

Naomasa folded his arms, "Is that your boy, sis?"

Ichiteru laughed, "Taiki-chan, don't be afraid! This is your aunty Emiko and your uncle Naomasa."

Tai approached cautiously, "I uh . . . I never knew I had an uncle." He told Nao.

He eyed Naomasa's headband warily, "So . . . you're a ninja, huh?"

Nao smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets, "I sure am. So . . . you're a kid, huh?"

Tai smiled slightly, "I sure am."

Yomiko folded her arms, watching the group of disembarked ninja with one eye but turning to Nao and saying "You know, it'd probably ease the strain on Kyoko-chan and the rest of us if you took this group off on your own, Nao. I mean, since you know them so well."

"Oh, break off from the group? Well, I guess . . . but first I should give this little darling back to her mother."

"That's not your baby?" Nao asked, he glanced at Emiko, who shrugged. She already knew, Emiko didn't tend to be surprised by anything because she was gifted with an insane amount of luck, especially when it came to making decisions. She could be lost in the woods and guess her way back so efficiently she'd find any other lost travelers and probably some sort of buried treasure.

Of course she'd used her ability to "guess" that the child wasn't Ichiteru's, Nao had just sort of assumed, after all his sister was happily married and he hadn't seen her for five years, it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that she might have had another child.

Naomasa turned to see who his sister would hand the child to.

He didn't know _why _he did it, he just did it and for some reason he felt his heart beat pick up when he saw her.

She'd been near the back, hidden. Her back was turned and her gray cloak made her look just like everyone else in Sasuke's group, still the instant he saw her he just _knew_.

Nao had never really known how he'd handle this moment, and he didn't know why he was handling it now the way he was . . .

He had a really stupid smile on his face, he couldn't help it. He tried in vain to stop smiling, to look serious, he considered trying to get mad at her but it didn't work.

"Hijiri-senpai," Yomiko said a little warily, "you had a child?"

Naomasa's smile wavered a little.

He was so caught up just in seeing Hitomi again he hadn't really considered . . .

After all there she was, alive, healthy, beautiful as ever . . . her eyes covered up by a pair of goggles with black lenses just as they'd always been, her raven hair went down just an inch or two past her shoulders in the back but in front it came down over her chest another four or five inches and now it was adorned with long blue feathers.

Her face hadn't changed at all, she looked the same as she had four years ago . . . he almost couldn't believe it was really her.

And yet there she was, it was her . . . and she was a mother?

Who was the father? It certainly wasn't Naomasa himself, he hadn't seen this girl--er woman in four years and anyway they'd never . . .

Things certainly had changed. Nao hesitated and said "I . . . it's good to see you again . . . I uh . . ." he struggled, looking for something to say.

"I really should move on with the others, I want to see this village you all built, and I'm sure your security teams will want to investigate my possessions." Hitomi said, "There'll be time to talk later."

"Yeah . . . um . . . I'll see you . . . soon." Nao struggled just to find things to say, his mind was swimming.

Yomiko gave him a dirty look for some reason and she and Kyoko led the group of ninja away to be shown the sights.

Nao watched Hitomi and her baby leave . . .

He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. He turned to his sister and nephew, "I uh . . . okay, so . . . um . . . food, you guys probably want something to eat, right? We should get caught up."

"Oh yes, I can see we've got a lot to talk about." Ichiteru said with a sly smile.

But for the life of him Naomasa couldn't concentrate enough to say anything. He just kept thinking about Hitomi.

* * *

The villages' small council chamber was packed, normally it seated a few village elders and Gaara, today every member of the Twelve who was present in the village had come, they were acting professional but Shikamaru knew they'd barrage Neji and Sasuke with questions once the official meeting was concluded.

Gaara, the head Samurai, the elders, everyone important was here now, that was the level of celebrity Sasuke attracted.

Shikamaru gazed levelly at Sasuke and Neji, "I feel better about our chances if Hinata and the Raikage are prepared to fight already. It's a bit of a pain, but we will need the Mizukage's support first." He said, glancing at Karin, who often worked as the liason between the villages, especially during the secret Chuunin exams the two villages held against each other.

"I'll do my best to see that you get it when I see him." Sasuke said.

"You're not staying with us?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"There's no need for me here. I'll leave Hijiri and the others under your command, I suggest consulting her if you need to form up squads for them, she was with me from the start so she knows everyone's capabilities."

Shikamaru nodded, and he said "But you're going to the Mizukage."

"Should we set a date for the assault then? I can convey it to the Mizukage." Sasuke offered.

Shikamaru shook his head, "Karin here was already taking our message on that matter to the Mizukage."

"Just as Juugo is hopefully bringing back good news from Kumogakure by now." Karin nodded, "Shikamaru here has been working on the invasion plans for years, Suigetsu supposed he must be ready for a first wave ay least by now."

Sasuke's eyes hardened a bit and he asked "There is one thing I've been wondering. I always assumed we'd meet up with your liberation forces on the mainland, why did you wait until we came to you? If you were waiting for us why not send a messenger?"

"Other than the fact that we had no way of finding you?" Gaara asked, taking up the slack on this question, "The truth is we hadn't planned for your arrival, or even for Hinata to be prepared for the attack as well. We just couldn't wait any longer."

"It's been four years," Sasuke said a little bitterly, "why wait even this long?"

Shikamaru looked away, "We had to wait until Naruto contacted us . . . we didn't feel we could do anything without including him."

"Because he's your weapon?" Sasuke accused.

"Because he's our Hokage." Shikamaru said simply.

Sasuke calmed a bit, "So then . . . where is he?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Dunno. We don't know where anyone is if they're not in the village, we don't have messenger birds, we don't have intelligence networks outside of the information Cloud and Mist give us."

That bit was not entirely true, but Shikamaru certainly didn't want Karin hearing him say otherwise.

Sasuke stared at him, "You planned an invasion without any of that?"

"It's complicated," Shikamaru said, "Kabuto took over the world after about thirteen years, he was patient, he was thorough. He also made a . . . a system."

Sasuke continued to stare, "What are you saying?"

"The idea of an empire . . . isn't a bad one." Shikamaru explained. "No one knows what the Emperor or Shogun actually look like. No one knows that the Emperor and the Kamikage are the same person, most don't even know the Kamikage exists. We're ninja, not Samurai, we don't need to throw the world back into the hells of war if we can subtly replace Kabuto and Orochimaru."

"And start some simple reforms to restore the balance of five great nations, or else keep the world united but freer." Akira said simply.

Taisho Ito Yoshi nodded knowingly, "Now that the Emperor and the Shogun have taken over the world you think you can just trade places with them. What stops someone else from doing that to you?"

"We've got some ideas but mostly we're still hammering that out," Shikamaru admitted, "it's probable that any one person has no right to so much power, but in any case Naruto has contacted us, just as I'm sure he contacted Hinata. The time to move is now, we're as ready as we're going to get."

Sasuke nodded slightly, "So the Mizukage will support you . . ."

"If only because he wants to fight for fighting's sake." Shikamaru nodded.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	4. Love Can Wait

**Chapter Three**

Sasuke leaned over against the balcony of the meeting hall, looking at the small village.

It wasn't really much, which was good, he didn't want anyone getting too used to this village, they'd have to leave it and fight for Konoha after all.

"I really wish you were staying." Sakura sighed, she'd gone to the balcony with him and pointed out some of the important buildings, like the armory and the makeshift academy.

"No one should be staying." Sasuke said, "We should have ended this war long ago."

Sakura was quiet for a moment, then she said "Do you think less of those of us who came here?"

Sasuke shook his head, "Not you, I told you to come here."

"But everyone else?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke considered. There was a slight resentment that as he'd been fighting and looking for lost ninja they'd been here living comfortably. He didn't doubt that they'd trained, didn't doubt that they'd made preparations, but the sad fact was that while they talked about how the war had never ended only Sasuke had actually been out fighting it.

Sasuke and his team.

"I think the worst of Shikamaru." Sasuke decided, "He shouldn't have let things come to this, he should have been ready to attack sooner. He's given Kabuto and Orochimaru more time to prepare."

"All the preparations in the world won't save them, not this time." Sakura said.

Sasuke scoffed, "You think we'll win because we're the good guys?"

Sakura shook her head, "No, I think we'll win because we know our enemy, but they've been forced to guess about us. Know yourself, know your enemy, and you'll find nothing to fear in a hundred battles."

"Know neither yourself or your enemy and find defeat in every battle," Sasuke countered, "how can we assume that we know Kabuto? How can _anyone _hope to understand Orochimaru?"

"We know Kabuto wants to serve Oorchimaru, we know Orochimaru wants to find immortality, we know the people are afraid but they can be whipped up into a rebellion if we need it, we know the Five use some sort of astral projection Jutsu to appear wherever they need to be, and that killing them would require meeting them in person." Sakura shrugged, "We know the defensive layouts on the coast, we know where we'll be going once we land and how we'll reach Konohagakure.

"But Orochimaru doesn't know how many we are, when we're coming, any of that. He just knows that we're coming sooner or later, he doesn't even know where from, he just guesses." Sakura concluded.

Sasuke watched the little village and said "Don't count on it. Kabuto is smart, Orochimaru is smart, both are probably as smart if not smarter than Shikamaru, and even if they're not you've got one brilliant strategist to their two."

"Then what do you suggest?" Sakura asked.

"If I knew the answers I'd have fixed everything by now," Sasuke said, "I only hope that wherever he went Naruto learned something useful, or found an army of hidden ninja or something."

Sakura frowned, "It'll be nice to see him again. It's nice to see you again. Someday we'll be a team again."

Sasuke considered that. He glanced at Sakura, taking in every detail of the woman he hadn't seen in four years.

She hadn't changed much physically, she was still beautiful, short pink hair, a slim athletic build, she wore the white jumpsuit of a medic ninja, but he could tell by the look of it that it wasn't her usual attire, she must have come straight from the hospital.

"What a touching scene," Karin said, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder to see her standing in the doorway adjusting her glasses the way she tended to do when she was agitated.

She was watching Sakura too, but not the same way Sasuke had been. Karin seemed more calculating.

"We're leaving now, Sasuke-kun." Karin said, "I'm not in any rush to see Suigetsu normally, but the sooner we get there the sooner the war will be back on, and that's what you want, isn't it?"

Sasuke nodded. He turned to Sakura, "I'll see you again soon," he assured her.

"Of course you will," Sakura nodded, and she gave Karin a calculating look of her own.

Karin smirked at Sakura, "See you at the exams."

"Exams?" Sasuke asked.

"The Chuunin exams of course. Did you think we'd just been trading quilting recipees all these years? Every six months the village in exile and the village hidden in the mist hold a Chuunin exam against each other. Once a year Cloud participates too, but it's harder for them to not look suspicious, so we took to holding the big exams on the new year festival, to explain the "tourists" who show up to take the examination." Karin explained.

"So this will be a small exam then," Sasuke reasoned, since it wasn't the new year.

"Of course. If Juugo's mission succeeded Cloud will have their hands full getting ready for the offensive." Karin said with a shrug, "But we really should be going, Sasuke-kun, we're behind schedule as it is just guiding you here."

"Sasuke can stay a while longer." Sakura suggested, "Taisho Ito will be taking his ship back to Kirigakure tomorrow morning, you could go then, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke considered it.

He glanced between Sakura and Karin, "The sooner I get things sorted out with Suigetsu the better, I should go now."

Sakura's gaze seemed to deflate somewhat, "I understand. I'll see you soon."

Sasuke nodded, and left Sakura alone on the balcony.

He followed Karin down the stairs, she seemed pretty smug and it wasn't as if Sasuke didn't know why, more that he didn't care.

He hadn't seen Sakura in four years, it was great to see her again but he couldn't focus on even the mildest happiness until everything was sorted out in the world, until balance was restored.

He hadn't seen Karin in even longer, so it wasn't as if Sakura needed to feel threatened by the redheaded kunoichi, but then it wasn't as if he and Sakura were an item either.

He supposed really none of that romantic stuff mattered. Sakura hadn't seemed to mind him spending four years with a younger woman when he ran off with Hitomi . . . what should the difference be? He hadn't done anything with Hitomi, he wouldn't do anything with Karin.

He was going to see Suigetsu, he was going to help defeat Orochimaru and Kabuto, _that _was what mattered to him.

* * *

Yomiko walked alongside Kyoko, her arms folded.

There was no point shadowing them, Hitomi recognized her, instead a trio of Sunagakure Chuunin had fallen into step, watching the group.

Kyoko was a quiet person, Yomiko didn't really remember if she'd been that way before but definitely since coming to the village Kyoko barely ever had anything to say, and when she did speak it usually wasn't anything important.

In return Yomiko tried not to talk Kyoko's ear off, they worked together often but weren't technically squad mates, so it wasn't like they needed to be close.

It was sad though, honestly Kyoko was probably the closest thing to a friend Yomiko had in the village. Shikamaru-sensei was sort of a father figure, Konohamaru-san was sort of a mentor, Temari-san and even her own mother as well were just the grown ups in her life, and even though Yomiko was practically an adult herself that was still how she thought of them.

Kyoko was pretty much the only girl close enough to her age to be considered a "friend" in Yomiko's book.

Nao was the only other and she wasn't quite sure about him.

Sometimes it seemed like maybe they could be more than friends and then sometimes . . . Sometimes he acted like a total jackass because some old flame showed up in town.

Okay, so it'd been the one time, but who did he think he was?

Nao was probably the most talented ninja of their year still left in the village. Only Kotaro could have contended with him for that title and Kotaro had been captured, probably imprisoned for the last four years, whereas Nao had been training, becoming an even more powerful Shinobi.

Yomiko had watched Naomasa go from being a nobody without a single drop of ninja blood to being the best ninja of their generation, _their _generation, _not _Hitomi's generation, so why would he have a flaw as major as even _liking _Hitomi?

Yomiko eyed the older woman, Hitomi was pretty enough but so what? Her personality was horrible, she was mean more often than not and Yomiko hadn't forgotten the pain Naomasa-kun had gone through when Hitomi used him to assassinate a candidate at the Chuunin exams.

And yet he still liked her? Even after she went AWOL for four years? Apparently got knocked up over that time to boot, and he still liked her? She'd seen the way he acted, it infuriated her.

Yomiko hissed a profanity to herself, Kyoko raised an eyebrow.

"It bothers you that much, huh?" Kyoko smiled slightly.

"Bothers _me_?" Yomiko forced a laugh, "what are you talking about? I'm just fine, nothing's bothering me."

"It bothers me too." Kyoko said simply. The tall girl shrugged as they walked, "I mean . . . I know it's none of my business."

"No, no," Yomiko said with feigned disinterest, "don't let me keep you from venting your frustrations. What bothers _you _about . . . whatever you're talking about?"

Maybe she had an ally here, maybe Kyoko would help her find a way to open Nao's eyes to the fact that Hitomi was all wrong for him.

Kyoko just shook her head, "It really is none of my business."

Yomiko scoffed, "Then why comment at all?"

"Because you wanted me to." Kyoko said simply.

Yomiko laughed and shook her head, "You don't know that."

"I don't _not _know it." Kyoko said evenly, "Actually Yomiko I've gotten to know you very well, and what you're planning, or about to be planning . . . bad idea."

Yomiko shook her head, "It's just stupid!" She whispered harshly, "She hasn't even been here, she's been running around out there for four years, she hasn't been helping rebuild our world or working with the Chuunin exams."

"She's been in the fields looking for those we've lost." Kyoko pointed out. "There aren't that many children capable of becoming ninja in this village, and three teams of experienced ninja who survived four years behind enemy lines are definitely worth more than six teams of untested children."

Yomiko scowled, "Yeah, she's a real hero."

"Don't get petty," Kyoko sighed wearily, "you're losing focus here. We're at war, that's what's important."

"You're damned right we're at war, and I'm gonna kick her ass!" Yomiko snapped. Kyoko sighed and rolled her eyes, Yomiko laughed, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Look you're right, I mean it's not like it's even that big of a deal."

"Exactly." Kyoko nodded, "So let it go."

Yomiko smirked, she glanced at Hitomi, "I'm not the one who has to let anything go . . ."

Kyoko shook her head, "You wonder why I don't talk to you very often. Just remember, I warned you."

Yomiko scoffed, she suddenly decided she liked the quiet Kyoko better.

She sized Hitomi up, that baby couldn't be more than a few months old, that meant Hitomi couldn't be fully recovered from giving birth . . .

Yomiko smirked snidely, "Oh I think everything's going to sort itself out pretty nicely."

"Bad idea." Kyoko sighed.

"Like you'd know." Yomiko grinned.

It was quite a liberating feeling to know exactly what she was going to do.

* * *

The tour group had stopped at a shelter of some sort, it was, Yomiko had said, where they would stay until "more permanent temporary accommodations" could be made.

Hayato rather liked the place. It was made entirely of wood, but it didn't look like it'd been nailed or sawed, instead it seemed like the wood had voluntarily shaped itself into the long rectangular building and the interior which looked Spartan but also had the glow of comfort.

He smirked at Hitomi, "Not bad, huh?"

"Does it matter?" The gloomy girl sighed, leaning against a chair and looking wearier than she should.

Hayato laughed, "What, are you so determined to be miserable that--"

"Hold Saeki." Hitomi interrupted him.

"What? No." Hayato rolled his eyes, "Spit up on me once, shame on you, spit up on me three times in one day and you're your mother's problem forever."

"She was sick," Hitomi protested.

"I know she was sick, I'm the one who figured out that she was sick, _you _just thought she didn't like goat's milk." Hayato rolled his eyes.

"Well she's not sick anymore, and to be fair I _still _don't think she likes goat's milk." Hitomi said wearily.

Hayato leaned against the wall and watched Hitomi, an observer might have thought it rude that he would just stare at her but he knew if he watched her from the corner of his eye she'd notice anyway so he might as well get a good look at her.

It was a trait he'd picked up after about a year with her, she didn't like it when people looked at her at all but if they tried to be subtle about it she'd start feeling suspicious which he suspected was due to her multitude of insecurities.

"Cut it out." Hitomi said in a tone that left no question that she was serious.

She didn't have to be specific because he knew just looking at her was what irritated her. There was little, apart from trying to touch her--appropriately _or _inappropriately--that would anger her more than just looking at her. He found it funny actually, Hitomi was gorgeous, men stared at her all the time and whenever they did she instantly assumed the looks were of disgust.

She _knew _she was beautiful because people told her all the time and she _knew _most of the men watching her would walk over hot coals just to see her bat her eyelashes at them, but she still felt uncomfortable being looked at, her insecurities were amusing.

Hayato didn't have much sympathy for anyone with insecurities, Sasuke-sensei would get morose because all of his students had died or betrayed Konoha, he blamed himself as if he were such a major influence on them that he drove them to defecting.

Hayato could sympathize with feeling responsible for death, as a doctor he felt some of that from time to time as well but he still recognized it as stupid, humorous, self important thinking.

Powers greater than mankind themselves dictated life and death, Hayato had learned this when he tried to become a monk and when the war forced him to become a doctor he'd seen it confirmed with his own eyes.

He'd seen men who shouldn't have lived pull through, seen men who shouldn't have died just pass away with no explanation other than that they must have given up on life.

So for Sasuke to fret about his students or for Hitomi to fret about her appearance just made him laugh.

Hitomi sighed, Hayato said "So what's the story between you and that kid anyway?"

"None of your business." Hitomi scowled.

"Sore subject, huh?" Hayato grinned, "now I have to know."

"You'll have to get used to being disappointed." Hitomi shrugged, "I'm not about to get started on my past, the life I left behind when I left Konoha is still in Konoha, the only way I'd even consider resuming it is if I were in Konoha . . . with the people that matter to me."

Hayato smirked, "Well it's just I've never seen you blush like that before. Well, except when you met--"

"I didn't blush!" Hitomi snapped, "Okay fine, so he's not half bad looking, so maybe I was surprised, but that doesn't mean _anything_!"

Hayato raised an eyebrow, "Seems it means more than I thought it did at least. You're awfully worked up over this."

"Shut up." Hitomi said vehemently. "I don't want Saeki hearing you spread slander about me."

"Who's spreading? No one's in earshot." Hayato smirked.

Hitomi shook her head, "Naomasa is a . . . persistent kid. If he thinks he has a chance with me he'll probably . . . Look, do me a favor, if he asks, you and I are an item."

Hayato stared, "How elementary school. Not how I imagined our relationship kicking off."

"Shut up." Hitomi said yet again.

"But you just told me to talk. To talk and tell lies in fact." Hayato smirked, "You hear that Saeki? Turns out lies are _good_!"

Hitomi sighed, "Sometimes I don't know why I bother."

"Then my work is done." Hayato said with a smirk.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	5. Ino Shika Cho

**Chapter Four**

Shikamaru sat on a surprisingly comfortable rock as he watched Ino and Temari hanging clothes on a line and the children play. Chouji and Ino's twins and his own son were running around, chasing one another except it wasn't so organized as a game of tag, they were pretty much just running for the sake of running and chasing whoever got ahead.

Shikamaru, being who he was, had noticed a pattern to it but doubted it was deliberate.

They were three years old now, that surprised him sometimes, and it sort of embarrassed him. Three years these kids had been growing up in the village exiled, they deserved to be living in Konoha.

They didn't seem to really mind, they were happy children Inomi and Chouryo, Chouji's and Ino's daughter and son respectively, had been named and would probably be someday trained so that the Ino-Shika-Cho tradition could continue, in kind Shikamaru had named his son Shikaru.

Shikamaru's first born, Sumiko was five now, it stunned Shikamaru how quickly life passed by, and it made him sick that while he was actually enjoying a quiet life with his wife and children the common folk suffered. He had by no means forgotten that, but sometimes it felt like he was too pleased with his own life.

Not for much longer, they were going to move now, finally.

Shikamaru sighed, watching Sumiko help her mother hang laundry, which was something Temari didn't usually do so helping her was something Sumiko wasn't used to doing. The girl was in charge of handing Temari clothes pins, simple enough but she kept making little people out of them and setting them in the dirt, they were supposed to represent Sumiko and all the people around her, which was just one of the little things that Sumiko did.

Chouji, who was leaning against a nearby tree also watching the scene asked, "Just what bet did Temari lose?"

Shikamaru smirked, "We bet whether or not Sasuke would see Sakura before he left the village."

"Isn't that kind of rude?" Chouji asked.

"We're rude people." Shikamaru said with mock gravity in his voice.

Chouji laughed, "Don't say things like that in front of your kids, they might think it's supposed to be true."

"Sumiko's smarter than that, and Shikaru doesn't care, he's in his own world with his friends." Shikamaru shrugged.

"What do you think of the ninja Sasuke brought in?"

"Hijiri is going to be an asset, she was just a lower tier Jounin back in the day but that's still Jounin. The rest are mostly Chuunin and a couple Genin who're probably ready for the exam."

"I'll ask Iruka-sensei to see if there's any room for them in existing teams if it's too troublesome for you." Chouji offered.

Shikamaru nodded, "Thanks," he said, "but troublesome as it is I should do it myself, I need to talk to Iruka-sensei anyway, ask him about my kids."

Chouji raised an eyebrow, "You're putting Sumiko into ninja school already?"

"What? No. She's only five, and I'm not one of those lunatics that believes their five year old can cure diseases and end world hunger."

"Well sure, but she is pretty sharp." Chouji pointed out.

"Yeah, but even if she could keep up on an intellectual level she couldn't keep up on a physical level. Besides I don't even know that she want's to be a ninja when she grows up, and Temari says we shouldn't force her to."

"Temari says?" Chouji blinked, "you don't agree then?"

"Two ninja parents, almost all the people she comes into contact with are ninja, I'm pretty sure Sumiko will feel like she's obligated to be a ninja whether or not we tell her so." Shikamaru shrugged.

Chouji nodded, "I guess you're right. I _want _my kids to be ninja so Ino and I encourage them every day, but come to think of it if they didn't want to be ninja I wouldn't mind at all. Maybe they could be florists, Ino could teach them that . . . maybe they'd want to be cooks, that'd be a _really_ noble profession, our family would never be lacking for good food to eat!"

Shikamaru smiled, "Exactly. They're so young there's no knowing what they'll want to do when they're older"

"But then why did you want to talk to Iruka about Sumiko-chan?" Chouji asked.

"I never said that, I said I wanted to talk to him about my kids. Konohamaru is going to be promoted to Jounin, we need three Special Jounin proctors to head the exams, I'm putting Yomiko and Naomasa's names in the hat, Temari's already suggested Kyoko to Gaara."

"You think they're ready to be Jounin?" Chouji asked.

"I think they're powerful enough," Shikamaru shrugged, "Yomiko is proud but she no longer allows that pride to blind her to the potential of others, she's mastered wind and fire chakra, Kurenai tells me she has a good grip on Genjutsu too. Naomasa's had the temperament for a while now and I think he has the skills, his Taijutsu is excellent as is his grasp on fire Jutsu, his biggest drawback is his reluctance to take life but for the exam at least that'll come in handy, he'll be less likely to miss something that might cause a student to get hurt, or killed, less likely to tolerate behavior that can lead to a fatality."

Chouji nodded, "So that's it then, the kids are going to be Jounin."

"Special Jounin." Shikamaru clarified.

Chouji smiled, "I'm sure they'll do great. Talking about old students I wonder how Tomoko-chan is doing."

Shikamaru nodded, "I'm sure she's fine, why not ask Neji about her?"

Chouji's Genin team had been hit hard during the retreat from Konoha. Whereas Shikamaru's three man team had lost just one member Chouji's had lost two, Kiba's younger cousin Inuzuka Kyusaku who'd been killed trying to protect his teammate Oedo Tomoko, and her twin Oedo Daisuke who had never made it out of the city.

Being the sole survivor gave Tomoko the chance to feign an emotional breakdown and leave Konoha's rogue ninja army, signing on with Kumogakure instead on Shikamaru and Naruto's orders.

Tomoko was currently their spy in Kumo, while Neji, Hinata and the Hyuga clan were there publicly, granted sanctuary by the Raikage, Tomoko had the harder job of being a Konoha ninja posing as a Kumo ninja, if she ever slipped up it could cause serious trouble but since Shikamaru didn't trust the Raikage one miniscule bit, having a spy who could climb through his ranks had seemed a good idea.

Of course nobody knew Tomoko was a spy besides herself, Shikamaru and Naruto.

In the event of his and Naruto's deaths however, Shikamaru had prepared a message for whomever the new Konoha Hokage became, identifying Tomoko as a Konoha agent, keeping her out of the bingo book if and when the two villages finally came to blows.

It was sad to think that the seven members of the Konoha twelve who'd trained Genin teams only about half of those Genin were alive or operating. Naruto had been the first, training a unit that had included Hijiri Hitomi, to the best of anyone's knowledge only Hitomi was still alive. After him Sasuke and Chouji had taken to training, Chouji's team was also down to its last member and Sasuke's . . . well everyone knew what had happened to Sasuke's students.

Miura Saizo had been murdered during a Chuunin exam, and Aburame Kurai and Hyuga Shiroi had defected and joined Sound, they were now both members of the Sound Five.

Ino had trained a team that was utterly wiped out by Earth ninja five years ago, then Tenten, Kiba and Shikamaru had taken on Genin teams because of how shorthanded the village was.

Kiba and Tenten's teams had both failed to become Chuunin so they'd been the safest of all during the invasion of Konoha, untested Genin had been used to protect the citizens as they fled for Kumogakure's protection, since then the six kids had become Chuunin, Kiba's team had been trained by Lee in his absence, and Sakura had taken over for Tenten's team when she decided to stay in Kumo with Neji and the rest of the Hyuga clan, though the kids could have stuck with their sensei Tenten had told them to be with their families on the island instead.

But the six of them were still untested in battle, Shikamaru was apprehensive to say the least.

He watched his wife and children, it was his responsibility to give them a better life than they currently had, he had to go out and fight, win the war and bring them home to Konoha.

Temari would be by his side, so would Chouji and Ino, and with Naruto returning it seemed all the people he trusted most would be there, ready to fight.

His mother would remain behind to watch over the children, but Shikamaru had something in mind that probably wasn't the best thing in the world to do.

He'd spoken to Temari about it, she thought he was joking.

But he was outnumbered, Kabuto and Orochimaru were geniuses and they had captured his student Kotaro who Shikamaru suspected would have been his strategic successor, together the three stood a fantastic chance of outthinking him at virtually every turn.

He needed a mind they couldn't predict, one they didn't know, Temari was really clever and she'd be part of his strategic team, Kakashi had been lost during the retreat from Konoha so he wasn't an option and though they were far from slow Yomiko and Naomasa weren't exactly the large scale strategy types, they could handle squad command well enough, of that Shikamaru was certain, but they couldn't control armies consisting of hundreds of ninja.

They had the fighters they needed, Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara, their brute force was incredible, but he needed another strategist, Sumiko was sharp but way too young to take into battle, Akira wasn't going to be much use in a ninja war because he was Samurai and thought exclusively as a Samurai, and Emiko wasn't a strategist.

She could tell Shikamaru whether or not his strategy was likely to succeed, she could guess where the enemy might leave a sneak attack and she could guess what the repercussions of any given battle would be, but she couldn't come up with a new strategy, she could only tell Shikamaru that his plan was or was not likely to succeed, she couldn't tell him how many he'd lose, or how full or hollow the victory might be.

On the other hand she had said she had a good feeling about the war in general so Shikamaru supposed that was a start.

He massaged his forehead, the village's number of battle ready ninja was going to be close to two hundred when they reunited with their forces on the mainland, when it came to ninja they were of comparable strength to Mist, Neji said Kumo had about twice that many ninja so all told the allied forces had a combined strength at or around eight hundred Shinobi.

Would it be enough? How many did Orochimaru have? How strong were they?

What was the cost for victory going to be?

Would living with it be as hard as living with the defeat?

He'd find out soon enough, he supposed.

* * *

Taiki liked uncle Naomasa's house. It was small, smaller than even the servant wing of Taiki's own home, but it had everything a person needed, and it was full of interesting things.

There was a bo staff on the wall, wall scrolls with pictures of phoenixes or some fiery bird shaped things anyway, and a picture of uncle Naomasa when he was younger, and two other ninja.

One, Naomasa had said, was his friend Kotaro, who had been taken prisoner by the Emperor, the other was his friend Yomiko, who'd given everyone else the tour.

Tai was impressed, they didn't look that much older than him, ninja got to be ninja when they were still kids?

There was another picture of uncle Naomasa when he was even younger, and with him were grandma and grandpa Ishida, aunt Eri, aunt Emiko, mother, and aunts Aneko and Minako too, the whole Ishida clan it seemed.

He wondered if this was before or after he was born, it was weird seeing a picture of his mother that could have come from before he even existed.

He glanced back at the adults, mother and aunt Emiko were sipping tea, Uncle Naomasa was sitting by a window looking out.

"He's liked her for a long time, at least as long as I've known her." Aunt Emiko told mother.

"I do not," Uncle Naomasa protested, "She's not even my type."

"I have to admit, Nao-kun, I still think of you as such a child I never even thought for a moment that you might actually have a type, you're making me feel old." Mother siad, sipping her tea, "but then why wouldn't she be? Pretty face, slim waist, long legs and of course those huge--"

Mother was interrupted when Aunt Emiko cleared her throat, and Tai noticed her eyes dart towards him. Mother smirked and said "huge . . . assets. I swear that woman makes me jealous, I'm pretty sure I even caught Yoshi staring at her . . . assets, when we first met her. I bet it's one of those, what do you ninja call them? Genjutsu? An illusion to distract people."

"Stop talking about her "assets" already!" Naomasa said in protest.

"I think it's kind of cute, Nao-kun. You have a crush." Mother said it in the same tone she'd used on Tai when their family dog died.

"It's not a crush," Naomasa said, "we're just old friends, she was like a tutor, she helped me master fire Jutsu."

"Hmm, so it'll be sort of like dating your teacher," Mother laughed softly, "Nao-kun, doesn't the fact that she has a child deter you?"

"So far all the courtship between Hitomi and myself has been happening in your own imagination, Ichi-chan, I barely even spoke to her!" Uncle Naomasa said.

"Not for lack of trying." Mother said, then she and aunt Emiko shared a laugh, "you're so lucky Eri isn't here, she'd have never ever let you hear the end of it."

"Which differs from what you're doing . . . how?" Naomasa raised an eyebrow, and mother smiled. "Seriously though," Uncle Nao continued, "I uh . . . I like her. But I wouldn't want to get between her and her husband, so don't worry about me acting inappropriately."

Mother said nothing for a long while, and Tai, who knew he'd better not get involved in the conversations of grownups didn't point out what both he and mother knew.

Hitomi didn't _have _a husband.

Still Tai wondered why his mother kept her silence. Maybe she didn't want Uncle Naomasa to know that Hitomi wasn't married, though Tai wasn't sure why it would matter. Maybe she'd just forgotten, or maybe she didn't want to embarrass Hitomi by mentioning that.

It wasn't important though. If it were, Hitomi would just tell Uncle Naomasa if he ever asked, then he'd know she wasn't married and then maybe uncle Nao could marry her and Hitomi could be Tai's aunt.

That'd be pretty cool, having two ninja relatives. But it wasn't any of his business. Maybe uncle Nao already had a girlfriend, mother hadn't even asked that. Maybe grownups were just weird.

Yeah, that was the answer that made the most sense to Tai. Grownups were just plain weird.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note:** Make sure to check out the message board, and be prepared as I plan to start making the chapters longer from here on. Orignally Shikamaru's son would be named Shikaku, I changed it at the last minute because I didn't want him getting confused with his grandfather.


	6. Inside Looking Out

**Chapter Five**

Hatake Kotaro walked calmly through the halls of the palace.

He was confined, a prisoner, he could not personally stroll the streets of what was once Konoha, could not personally set foot outside the palace.

For some this was no problem, Shiroi was content to spend her time projecting for missions, playing with her child or sleeping with her husband, Kurai, who was himself withdrawn and usually sullen. At first he had tried to befriend and even conspire with Kotaro to escape to freedom, but Kotaro had made it plain that without his mother and father he would go nowhere.

So Kurai had given up and resigned to his fate, or seemed to, Kotaro did not know for certain, it'd been nearly three years since Kurai had spoken even in whispers against the Sound village.

Yukio had a mercenary attitude towards it all, he wanted to be stronger and he didn't care whether it was the Kazekage or the Kamikage who helped him achieve that strength.

And the final member of the Sound Five, Hattori Kasumi . . .

"How are you doing today, First?" Kasumi asked, leaning alluringly against the corner Kotaro had been about to walk around.

Kotaro didn't answer in words, he just nodded to her and kept walking, but she fell into step besides him.

"I have given some thought to what you said the last time we spoke," Kasumi said, "You recall?"

Again Kotaro didn't really answer, he just grunted, but he did indeed recall.

He was "blessed" with a cursed mark and considered the first amongst the Sound Five. Despite all this Orochimaru-sama was now setting all five of them after the one called Uchiha Sasuke, denying Kotaro his "line in the succession" as Kasumi had put it.

She had been shocked when he said that removing Orochimaru from his current body was all that mattered to him, whether Orochimaru's soul went into Uchiha Sasuke or Hatake Kotaro after that, it made no difference to him.

"You say you do not care," Kasumi reasoned, "is it because you only want the master to be happy, or is it because you are afraid of losing yourself? Because Kabuto-sama said that it doesn't work that way, if Orochimaru-sama possessed your body a little bit of you would remain so it wouldn't be like dying if that's what you're afraid of."

"I will keep that in mind." Kotaro said evenly and walked a little faster but Kausmi just kept pace with him and started to sort of skip.

"Happy to help, Taro-kun. Would you like to help me? There is a sort of training I want to try, something Okatsu-sensei won't teach me."

Kotaro fought back a scowl, either Kasumi was going to ask to learn the Chidori again, or she was being extremely tactless about asking--

"Want to show me how the human reproductive system works?" Kasumi purred.

Kotaro sighed. So it was the second one, or else she thought she was being funny.

Sure enough Kasumi laughed and said, "Just kidding! You know I would never be so easy."

_I'll bet. _Kotaro thought. It wasn't like Kasumi was unattractive, she was beautiful really, her body was in perfect physical condition, she wasn't ridiculously thin, and she wasn't overweight, her chest and her rear end were both properly proportionate to her body, neither was too big or too small, her legs were just the perfect length, everything about her body was pretty much ideal, almost as if it were programmed though Kotaro knew it was no Genjutsu, though he suspected selective breeding by her clan might be at least a little bit to blame.

He didn't really mind her personality, she was a little thick in the head but then most girls were, at least compared to him. Her raven hair and matching jet black eyes and almost paper white skin made her seem sort of like a living doll, but that wasn't what kept Kotaro from developing interest in her. What kept him from giving in to her poorly disguised invitations to roll in the proverbial hay was simple; despite everything that made her seem perfect, she just wasn't his type, not that he let thoughts of what or who his type might be dwell in his mind because Orochimaru would find a way to reach such information and the snake lord had _enough _hostages already.

"I was hoping to learn your Lightning Blade technique, Okatsu-sama has helped me better control my lightning element, I would begrateful." Kasumi told him.

Kotaro shook his head slowly, it was a little frustrating knowing his four companions so well that he almost didn't need to have them around to hold conversations with them. He looked at Kasumi, "The Kamikage requires our presence in the evening, I'm sure he'll give us our dispatch orders, we'll need all our chakra if we're going to channel our avatars against Uchiha Sasuke or any other members of Konoha's Legendary Twelve who might be with him."

Kasumi sighed, "Perhaps we could enjoy some leisure activities instead."

"I intend to do exactly that, if you'll excuse me." Kotaro said, shoving his way through a door and leaving Kasumi on the other side, he didn't lock the door because he knew she could just melt into her shadow or sink into it or whatever it was that she did, and just follow him, but for all her faults Hattori Kasumi knew what a closed door meant and didn't attempt to push him any further.

There was only one balcony available to the Sound Five, though they could go anywhere with their avatars their actual bodies didn't leave the palace and weren't often exposed to danger.

Kotaro loved that balcony and it was where he was standing now. Projecting his consciousness into an avatar for a mission was sort of like dreaming, he didn't feel pain or much of anything, he didn't see with _his _eyes, and he wanted to see the city with his own eyes, it helped calm him.

He stood on the balcony looking out at what was once Konohagakure. The monument of the five Hokages had been destroyed, replaced with five serpent heads, a monument to the Sound Five, the five Serpent Gods.

Kotaro looked at the sprawling city, buildings made of metal and glass, just as Lord Orochimaru had wanted.

It was unlike any other city Kotaro had ever seen, it was cold and uniform, not like the old village had been.

But it was still calming to look at it. It was his window to the outside world, the only way he could see it with his own eyes.

He shook his head, "Beautiful." He remarked of the bygone city in his mind, not the city his eyes beheld.

But it was the past.

And the future? All that mattered was rescuing his mother and his father, when that was finished he'd decide what to do next.

Maybe he'd remain loyal to Orochimaru, maybe he would try to escape. He didn't think about it too often, or for very long, Orochimaru had a way it seemed, of knowing what he was thinking.

He hated that.

But he had to endure. Orochimaru had possessed his mother's body, and imprisoned his father. Until Uchiha Sasuke was captured and handed over Mitarashi Anko and Hatake Kakashi would not be free, and to Kotaro his parents were by far more important that Uchiha. They meant everything to him, Uchiha meant nothing.

_So I'll go get him as fast as I can . . . I'll spare no effort, and anyone who gets in my way will just have to be killed. _The seventeen year old boy thought.

Sometimes he didn't know why he thought things like that. Why he thought about killing people. He suspected it was Orochimaru's influence somehow, perhaps his cursed mark . . . He wondered if there was a way he could get rid of it.

Maybe it was just him, maybe that was who he had become.

* * *

In the dead of night she came into the tavern, a beautiful young woman with dark dusky skin, and long black braids. She wore a gray cloak, it covered whatever other clothing she might have been wearing.

She strode to the bar with a confidence not usually exhibited by young girls. Of course few women, young or old would set foot in this tavern, the lecherous leers this one received from the patrons should have made her reconsider and turn around.

But it didn't.

She rapped on the bar with a gloved fist and said "Room, old man. Now."

The innkeeper shook his head, "No way. All of the rooms what I've got are reserved for the soldiers. In case you haven't noticed we've a bandit problem, and any day now the Daimyo's army will arrive to rid this town of them."

The patrons cheered at this, but the woman tossed her long black braids over her shoulder and leaned over the counter, "Let me be clearer . . ." She said coldly, "I _am _the army the Daimyo sent. That said you're reserving all these rooms for _me_, which is really very sweet." She winked at him and said "So give me the biggest one and see that I'm not bothered."

The bar tender raised an eyebrow, "Look, this isn't even close to funny!" He snapped, "Now get yourself--"

She opened her cloak a bit, exposing her neck and the strange scarf she wore.

No . . . not a scarf . . . a headband.

A headband with a metal plate. On that plate was a design of a cloud, the bar tender recoiled, "A Shinobi!" He hissed quietly.

The woman smirked, "Seems that way, don't it?"

The inn keeper was somehow both impressed and disappointed. Shinobi were rare these days, but this one looked young, the Daimyo of the land of Lightning had complied with imperial decree and ordered the ninja corps of Kumogakure disbanded save for twenty individuals who acted as the personal body guards of the Daimyo and his family, could this young thing really be one of those twenty ninja?

One of the bar patrons reached for the girl's chest, "You need a room? Come'n share mine!" The man cried.

The girl struck out like lightning, so quickly all the inn keeper saw was a blur.

And the man dropped to his knees, "Hey!" He complained after gagging for a few horrifying moments, "I wash bean nice to you!" He slurred.

The inn keeper was terrified, here this ninja--he no longer doubted that she was a ninja--was about to murder one of his patrons, a man who hadn't even paid his tab yet.

The girl sat on a bar stool and smiled, "Room. Now. Or do I need to start a brawl? I'm awful tired, but I still think I can handle this whole room."

The inn keeper was surprised, the woman seemed . . . finished. The man was gasping for air on the floor, she didn't seem interested in pursuing the fight at all.

A Samurai would have killed him.

Of course a samurai wouldn't have been hit on by him.

With a shaking hand the inn keeper handed her a key, "Top room." He said. Normally when a customer acted up he'd give them a bad room, but now he didn't dare.

"Sounds luxurious, thanks." She said with another wink, taking the key.

The inn keeper nodded and glanced at the man on the floor, "I think you've had enough . . . pay up and go."

The man grumbled something and slipped out of consciousness.

The inn keeper decided he'd add the man's tab to what the woman would owe him . . . of course he wouldn't bill her directly, he'd have to send a cost report to the government.

"All right boys, tonight the drinks are on the Daimyo!" The inn keeper cried.

* * *

Oedo Tomoko tossed her cloak onto the ground.

The top room, as it turned out, was sort of an attic with a bed. The ceiling was rather low, she had to duck a bit to move around.

She reached into her flak jacket's scroll pouch over her right breast and tossed a scroll to the ground too.

It exploded in a cloud of smoke, and there stood her comrade.

Who hit his head on the ceiling. Tomoko smirked at him, "Getting too tall, Yuu?"

"I don't see _you _standing straight."

The young woman smiled and sat down on the bed, "So maybe we're both taller than we used to be. Don't be grumpy because I made you transform into a scroll."

"It was dishonest." Yuu complained.

"Well I _am _in charge of the finances, I didn't think we could afford two rooms." She shrugged innocently, "Besides, I wanted to keep you close to my heart, if we'd gotten to brawl I would've let you out." She looked around the room, then gasped, "Oh my gosh! Yuu . . . there's only one bed." She whispered.

"So your trick didn't work out as well as you thought it would." Yuu smirked. "I can sleep on the floor."

_Oh come on! _She thought. "Really, Yuu . . . you'll get back problems if you do that."

"I'll be fine." He smiled. "It wouldn't be appropriate for us to share a bed."

Tomoko smirked and tossed him a pillow, "Always the gentleman. Fine, be that way." She unzipped her flack jacket and tossed it carelessly to the ground, unlike Yuu who set his neatly aside. She set her head down and stared at the ceiling. She might have teased Yuu by making a big deal about undressing, but it was far too cold for that, and what little warmth her gray uniform jumpsuit would provide was welcome.

She glanced at Yuu and blew out the candle that lit the room.

They were partners, Jounin of Kumogakure, they'd been working together for four years now . . . Tomoko had been _using _him, according to the Hokage's--or more likely Shikamaru's--plan, for four years now.

Tomoko was a Konoha Shinobi . . . even if Konoha didn't technically exist anymore she'd always be loyal to the leaf village.

She'd agreed to acknowledge Naruto as her Hokage . . . she'd follow the Hokage's orders.

So she'd work with Yuu, pretending to be a Shinobi of Kumogakure. She'd use him, and in time she'd very likely be expected to turn on him.

But she couldn't kill him. She'd never be able to do that.

She only hoped that when the day came . . . he'd understand why she'd done everything she'd done.

It was for the sake of her village, for the sake of her people, she was a Shinobi, a weapon of her village in the best of times and in these, the worst of times she was a tool of its restoration.

"We're awfully close to the border." Yuu mentioned.

"Mm." Tomoko acknowledged.

"Maybe we could go see Otogakure before we head back. You know, just to see what it looks like. I hear it's massive now, and--"

"I don't want to see that place." Tomoko said, then to keep Yuu from knowing how bothered she was by the very idea she forced her characteristic smirk and said, "Least not without better back up. You're great, but when I go to what _used to be _the Leaf Village again I want about a hundred thousand Samurai and ten thousand ninja backing me up."

Yuu laughed weakly, then after a pause he said "It won't be enslaved forever."

Tomoko nodded slowly, "I know." She whispered.

She thought of her brother Daisuke, a collaborator like the rest of her traitorous clan, working day and night to build up she bastard Emperor's city. Not only would seeing the way her home town had been bastardized bother her, but she was pretty sure that if she ever got too close to her brother and their clan again she'd be uncontrollable.

She shut her eyes tight. In the morning those bandits would be great practice, but before too long it'd be Samurai she'd be slaughtering.

Samurai, and Sound Ninja.

She was ready. She'd been ready for four years. Pretty soon she'd be able to stop lying and finally go home. After all, there was more to her and Yuu being out in the frontier than just bandits.

* * *

Hitomi smiled as Saeki finally fell asleep. She set her gently on the cot that had been provided for her. There was no crib, Kyoko had said she'd look into getting one but it hadn't shown up yet and Hitomi wasn't going to pass up a chance to set the child down at long last without getting a screaming protest.

Hitomi watched the tiny child sleeping and sighed.

_What did I get myself into, kid? What made me think I could take care of you when I've got a war to fight? _She folded her arms, _At least if I die you're too young to remember me so you won't be traumatized . . . maybe you will remember me . . . which do I actually want? I wonder what _you _want . . ._

She heard the slightest sound and raised her gaze to the door of her room, _Please don't knock, please don't knock! _She thought as with all the speed of a Shinobi she silently sprang from her kneeling position next to the cot and reached the door, twisting the knob and opening it up before the woman standing outside could manage to knock.

Lady Ito smiled, "I was just about to--"

Hitomi held a finger to her lips, Ichiteru smiled weakly, "How is the little angel doing?" She whispered.

"Just fell asleep," Hitomi said, glancing back.

Ichiteru nodded slowly, "If she's sleeping in your bed where will you sleep?"

"I won't." Hitomi said, "I usually don't."

"That's not healthy." Ichiteru said.

"No." Hitomi agreed but made no further comment.

The older woman smiled weakly, "Listen . . . I just wanted to talk to you about my brother . . . he seems rather taken with you and . . . well, I don't mean to be rude--"

"But you want me to leave him alone," Hitomi nodded, "Yeah, no problem, I never tried to lead him on, I--"

Ichiteru held up her hand, "Hold on now. Look uh . . . This is kind of hard, I haven't seen my brother in years so I don't know him as well as I'd like. I think I got a pretty good measure of your character while we were on the boat, and my son owes you his life so I know you're honorable, and I think he will be too."

Hitomi folded her arms, "So . . . what is it you want?"

"Well . . . my brother, I mean I don't know anyone else around here, and I've already spoken to my sister, but I don't think she really knows and she doesn't want to guess and Nao mentioned you had sort of been like a tutor to him . . ."

"Uh, yeah," Hitomi nodded, "I taught him . . ." She trailed off, how would she tell this noblewoman she'd taught Naomasa a lethal Jutsu specifically so that he would use it on another Genin?

She laughed mirthlessly, Ichiteru gently placed her hand on Hitomi's wrist. The physical contact made the battle worn Jounin uncomfortable, she didn't like being touched unexpectedly . . . in fact she didn't like being touched.

Ichiteru said "I'm not my mother, okay? I know what ninja do, I know what you were training my brother to do and I'm fine with it. I'm married to a Samurai and my son trains in martial arts, believe me, I get the whole role of a warrior thing."

Hitomi nodded, "Okay . . ."

"Look, my brother . . . is he a good ninja? Do you think he'll survive this war you're going to fight?"

"Yes." Hitomi said honestly, "I think that if he isn't already, he's going to be one of the best ninja."

"How does he measure up to you?" Ichiteru asked, "you were able to defeat a member of the Five, could he?"

Hitomi shrugged, "I can't say. I haven't seen him in four years. If he's been training at all, then I'm sure he'll do fine."

Ichiteru nodded slowly, "Well . . . in the event that he can't . . . I would like you to do everything in your power to protect him. I am willing to pay you, so you may consider it a ninja mission."

Hitomi frowned, "I couldn't. A thousand and one things happen in a battle, I can't be responsible for Naomasa."

Ichiteru smiled, "You don't have to be his body guard . . . just watch his back when you can. Could you do that?"

"I have to," Hitomi said, "For him and for every allied ninja, we have to watch each other's backs." She sighed, Ichiteru looked irritated and she found herself saying, "But . . . Nao _is _a friend, so . . . I'll probably pay just a bit more attention to him." She admitted.

Ichiteru smiled again, she sat down on a stool in Hitomi's room and looked at Saeki, "The poor thing."

"It's fine, she's slept on so much worse." Hitomi said, "You know . . . when she actually sleeps."

Ichiteru smiled, "No, no, this isn't any good. You should come stay with me."

"You already have your own place?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"I have family." Ichiteru smiled.

Hitomi hesitated, "Did Nao put you up to this?" She asked.

Ichiteru laughed, "No, I'm not staying with Naomasa, his house is much too small, to be honest I'm not sure how _he _fits in it, I suspect he's almost never at home so he doesn't notice how claustrophobic it is . . . or maybe I'm just too used to being a rich woman living in big houses. In any event I'm going to be staying with my sister Emiko, her home is sufficient for myself and my son . . . and you would be able to squeeze in too."

Hitomi hesitated still, she glanced at Saeki, "I don't know . . ."

Ichiteru laughed, she looked at Saeki too and whispered "Who is her father? Is it Uchiha?"

"What? No!" Hitomi said just a bit too loudly, and Saeki stirred, she opened her eyes and began to cry.

Hitomi massaged her forehead, but Ichiteru stood up and held out her hand, "If I can get the girl back to sleep you and her come with me and get some rest in a decent house."

Hitomi raised an eyebrow, "Fine." She said, somewhat pleased that the decision had been made for her. If Ichiteru needed to get Saeki back to sleep she wasn't going anywhere.

Saeki barely slept, she was quiet a lot of the time so Hitomi was lucky in that regard, but still the child barely slept and when she did sleep if she were woken up--as had happened now--she was absolutely inconsolable, she'd cry until she fell asleep again.

But Ichiteru just smirked and picked up the infant, she gently rocked her and sang softly into the girl's ear.

Hitomi caught bits and pieces of the lullaby, but not the whole thing. Still, what she heard was soft, soothing, calming, she found herself almost drifting off to sleep, and that surprised her.

Maybe it'd just been _that _long since she herself had heard something soothing.

But Saeki fell straight to sleep, Hitomi stared, "How many kids have you _had_?" She asked, Ichiteru just laughed and handed the sleeping infant to Hitomi.

"Any other bags?" Ichiteru asked as she grabbed Hitomi's cloak and a bag of clothes and food for Saeki. Hitomi shook her head, Ichiteru smiled, "Very good, let's go then."

"Hold on," Hitomi managed, "Why do you care so much? Is it just because I was there for Tai?"

Ichiteru smiled, "We're both fish out of water here, at least we know each other. I've been years without seeing my brother or sister even _before _they went into exile, now they're strangers to me. Naomasa is a man now when last I knew him he was probably younger than Tai, and Emiko . . . it's like meeting family you haven't seen in a long time always is, we can talk about our shared past but the rest is all catching up, I'm sure it's the same for you, you know a lot of people in this village but it's been so long I'll bet you don't know them like you used to."

Hitomi nodded, it was true, she didn't know anyone in the village very well. She'd made an assumption that Naomasa would pursue her and even acted like an idiot in front of Endo, the one person least likely to let her forget it, just to keep him from being interested in her.

Maybe he didn't care anymore, maybe he'd moved on, for that matter maybe everyone in the village had become a different person, she knew she was different.

Four years was a long time, she really was a stranger here, just like Ichiteru said.

"You want someone mildly familiar whilst you get to know everyone all over again." Hitomi reasoned.

"And someone who themselves has to get to know everyone all over again," Ichiteru said, "we can compare notes, it's more efficient that way. Besides, I wouldn't mind having a body guard of my own, who knows when I'll need one."

Hitomi sighed and nodded, "All right, all right." She said. She didn't believe for a second that Ichiteru didn't have some ulterior motive for bringing her along, the idea that a woman would want someone she'd known for a couple of days to help her get reacquainted with family she'd known for years was too fishy.

"Don't act like I'm twisting your arm, we made a wager and I won, come on let's go. We have a lot to talk about."

"Like what?" Hitomi asked, hoping mere information was all that Ichiteru wanted from her.

"The things you know that I don't about the secret workings of the ninja world, how you survived, how many ninja there actually are, mostly that sort of thing, but just for starters, why do you always wear those goggles? They're not exactly fashion conscious you know."

Hitomi laughed weakly, "That," she said, "is a very complicated story."

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note:** Remember to check out the message board, link's at the top(ish) of my profile page. Here, after many requests, a longer chapter and, because I know you were all curious, a bit of Kotaro and Tomoko. You can't tell because emoticons are "unprofessional" but I'm smirking. Anyway enjoy!


	7. The Little Ones

**Chapter Six**

Tenten leaned against the doorframe as she watched Hinata and Hanabi talking.

She was Hinata's bodyguard more or less, charged by Neji to protect his cousin in his absence. She really hated the job.

She liked Hinata fine as a friend and she didn't mind protecting her friends but Hinata was the head of the Hyuga household, a Jounin who could take care of herself and still had an entire clan to watch her back, meanwhile Neji was out behind enemy lines trying to get to Shikamaru, who knew if he was okay?

Neji needed someone to watch his back, Hinata didn't, but Tenten had made a promise and she would follow through.

The two sisters didn't mention how one hundred teams were ready to mobilize from Kumogakure, four hundred ninja ready to fight the first battle in the final act of this long, bloody war.

There would be losses on both sides. Heavy losses.

But it would be worth it, the sacrifices made would end the war.

Hinata and Hanabi didn't say any of that, but they were thinking it. Everyone was thinking it, everyone was nervous.

Four years of quietly defending Kumogakure by rooting out all members of the Sound Cult and either keeping them under observation or causing them to have "accidents" had been the tactics used by the ninja of Kirigakure and Kumogakure ever since the Shogunate took power.

Because each Daimyo was only allowed to have twenty ninja under his direct command the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning had disbanded the ninja village and declared each ninja clan a Samurai clan instead, there was after all no restriction on Samurai.

Clan-less ninja were either adopted into Samurai clans according to talent similarity or selected to be members of the Daimyo's personal Shinobi guard.

Kumogakure had thusly been able to raise a sizeable, trained Shinobi force; Kirigakure had similarly found a way around the restrictions by using the majority of their unregistered Shinobi on the ships that guarded the exiled island. Most of their other ninja were mingled into the ranks of typical soldiers, looking for members of Orochimaru's cult or allowing themselves to be recruited so that they could find more.

The unknown factor was the village exiled, how many ninja would they bring to bare, what plans had Shikamaru cooked up?

Tenten had never really bothered with the full Konohagakure uniform and yet now that her clothes were considered "civilian clothing" she felt practically naked.

So while Hinata and Hanabi didn't speak about the war it was all Tenten wished anyone would speak about, she wanted it to begin, she wanted to fight the final battle, wanted it all to end.

Instead they talked about Hanabi's son, talked about plans for the festival they wouldn't actually be attending, and talked about what they'd wear to the festival. Tenten knew that it was all sort of a code for how much equipment they'd bring, but even so Tenten didn't participate in the conversation, she couldn't focus on playing that game. All she could think of was how soon the fight would begin.

She hoped Neji would be all right, she hoped Shikamaru had come up with the perfect strategy, she hoped the good guys finally won.

* * *

Naomasa headed for the temporary housing, he had to see Hitomi.

"Hey Nao-kun!" Yomiko said, jogging to catch up with him, "So weird, I was just about to see you."

"You _can _see me," Naomasa smirked.

Yomiko shoved him affectionately, "You know what I mean."

"Yeah . . . are you wearing lipstick?" Naomasa raised an eyebrow.

"No!" Yomiko said loudly, rolling her eyes and wiping her face, "I uh, I must have drank something red."

"Right . . . so what's up?" He asked her.

"Huh?" Yomiko blinked.

"Why were you coming to see me?" He clarified.

"Oh, no reason really, just wanted to see you."

Nao raised an eyebrow, "Why? Were we going to train or something? Or did you just want to rub it in my face that you and your uncle beat me and Kyoko today?"

"No way!" Yomiko said, "I'd never rub that in your face . . . without Kyoko here too, that is. I hate having to repeat myself."

"What's that you say?" Nao asked.

Yomiko smirked, "Very funny, I'm not falling for that."

Nao smiled, "So what brings you here, then?"

"Well, what brings you out here?" Yomiko asked, "I thought I'd see you, y'know, at your house."

"Well it's just I have this," Nao said, indicating the flak jacket he was carrying, "it's Hitomi's, she left it behind in Kumo four years ago when she left, I thought I'd give it back to her."

Yomiko shook her head, "Um, okay . . . dare I ask how she happened to leave her clothing with you?"

Nao laughed, "It's nothing too exciting, when she left the hospital she left this behind and I just happened to be the person who showed up first so they gave it to me. I thought she might want it back, you know, since it's not like we can manufacture a new one or anything."

"Why'd you hold onto that?" Yomiko scoffed, "Waste of space, she's done fine without it."

"She couldn't wear it on the road because it would have given away what she really was, but now that she's here she should be able to decide for herself if she still wants to wear it."

Yomiko scoffed, "How does she even fit those massive--"

"I've wondered that too." Naomasa interrupted Yomiko to make it clear that he knew exactly what she was going to say and that she didn't need to finish. Then just to defend Hitomi he added, "They're smaller than Lady Tsunade's were anyway."

"Only because Lady Tsunade's were fake." Yomiko scoffed.

"What?" Nao raised an eyebrow.

"Genjutsu, Sakura-san told me, Lady Tsunade's whole appearance was a Genjutsu because she was too vain to let anyone know she was an old lady."

"Well fine but her chest was real, it saved her life once when she was fighting this Sound ninja back before she became Hokage--"

"You believe that old story? It's a total lie circulated to make people think those things weren't just a jiggling Genjutsu." Yomiko said simply.

"Naruto-sama told me himself." Nao pointed out.

"He's a man; he wanted to believe the lie." Yomiko reasoned. "Guys like great big huge knockers, they totally ignore the fact that such things just get in the way."

"Oh like you'd know." Nao laughed, "You're just jealous."

"While I'm not as endowed as Hijiri-san, I am most certainly doing just fine on my own," Yomiko said, clasping her hands behind her back to better show off her chest, "I'll bet Hitomi's are Genjutsu too. No one who runs around and exercises so much could have that much fat stored in their chest, she acts like she hates it but I bet she likes the attention."

"No she doesn't," Nao said, "She's super self-conscious, she hates when people stare at her chest."

"Yeah, that's an act, she likes the attention." Yomiko said, "She cooks up a Genjutsu like Lady Tsunade's and gives herself a fake rack, now everybody wants to be her friend, typical stuff really. I had to talk Kyoko out of doing that very thing."

"That's a load; Kyoko doesn't even have a boyfriend."

"Exactly." Yomiko shrugged. "But Hitomi does . . . in fact it seems she's got more than just a boyfriend, huh? And you want to know why? Because she's stacked like a thousand building blocks and about six hundred of those building blocks are probably illusions."

Nao considered it. It didn't seem likely, didn't really fit Hitomi's personality . . .

And yet it gave him a good excuse to say, "Maybe I just need to grab onto them and find out."

"Whoa! Bad idea, bad idea!" Yomiko declared, "_So _wrong!"

They laughed; Nao wasn't sure why Yomiko would even care what he felt for Hitomi, why did anyone care?

He wasn't going to do anything wrong, and Hitomi had a husband now so he _barely _even wanted to.

Actually, it sort of irritated him, he liked her and she ran off and found someone else . . . what was so wrong with him? If she'd waited just one more year he'd have been eighteen . . . then _they _could have had a kid together.

He might not mind so much if she were happy but she hadn't even seemed happy so . . . what was the deal?

Was she just _that _opposed to being with him? He knew the age difference bothered her but it wouldn't matter so much in a couple years.

She was over eighteen now, and he wasn't, maybe she'd just been impatient.

But then it wasn't as if they'd made any promises . . . well he'd promised to marry her, but she hadn't been super thrilled at that promise . . .

"Ishida, right? And Sarutobi. What's up?" A mildly familiar man asked as Naomasa realized they'd reached the temporary housing unit.

"Doctor Endo." Yomiko greeted, okay so _she _knew his name.

The doctor nodded, Nao said, "How do you know me?"

"Hitomi talks about you sometimes." Endo shrugged.

"Really." Naomasa said, fighting the smirk that threatened to spread itself across his face.

"Yep. She said you were like a little brother to her. Can't see much of a resemblance myself."

"Is she around?" Naoamasa asked, irritated now. The "brother-sister" analogy was like a death sentence according to Shikamaru-sensei.

"Nope." Endo said calmly.

"She isn't?" Yomiko snapped, "I'm with security, she shouldn't have gone anywhere without me know--"

"I cleared it," Kyoko said, coming out of the shelter, "It was less trouble just letting her stay with a friend than it was writing up the paperwork to get her a temporary home . . . I didn't think it'd be a big deal . . . and are you wearing lipstick?"

"What? No! Where would I even _get _lipstick, it's not like we have cosmetics imported," Yomiko sighed, "and anyway I guess it isn't a big deal that you let Hitomi go . . . but who's she staying with? It's not you," she said, nodding to Nao, "and other than you I don't think any of her friends made it out of the village."

Nao sighed, "Well, since we're here, you need any help, Kyoko?"

The older girl smiled slightly, "No, I'm done with my work here and heading home and," her eyes narrowed, "oh wait, you just want me to tell you where Hijiri went."

"What? No!" Nao said honestly, "I mean it's not a big deal I just thought that since I was out here . . . you're joking, aren't you?"

Kyoko smiled again and shrugged, "You should drop that off with Hijiri if it _is _hers. I was just going to lead the doctor here to her, but since you offered to help . . ."

"Okay so where is she?" Nao asked, feeling nervous now.

Would he just trip over his own sentences again? And why did the doctor need to be there? Not that it mattered, any excuse to see Hitomi . . .

Yomiko folded her arms indignantly for some reason, Kyoko shrugged, "She's staying with your sisters, by their special request and Gaara-sama said it was fine so I allowed it. See ya."

"Hold on, I can't just let you walk home alone," Naomasa said.

"I'll walk with her," Yomiko grunted, "You're not going to need me. I wanted to talk to Hijiri-sensei too, but I can wait until tomorrow."

Nao shuddered, "Are you sure, Yomiko?" Nao would have felt better having a comrade to watch his back and maybe help him out if he started to mess up.

Kyoko yawned and said, "I can go alone . . . I mean I'm a ninja you know."

"Here's a thought," Endo said calmly, "Why doesn't Sarutobi take me, Ishida you can take Ms. Kyoko home for chivalry's sake, that way when you get there Sarutobi and I will probably have concluded our business with Hitomi and you can therefore have her all to yourself."

"Um . . . yeah, okay." Nao said. "You're still going to be there though, right, Yomiko?"

"Huh?" Yomiko seemed surprised, "Um, yeah, I guess if you want . . ."

"Alright then that settles it," The doctor said. But Nao rather wondered what Yomiko would want to talk to Hitomi about, and what he himself would say to Hitomi.

He had the strongest urge to give Yomiko the flak jacket to give to Hitomi then follow Kyoko's example and just go home.

But Yomiko and the doctor were already walking away, and Kyoko looked very tired so Nao decided not to fret over it.

He just walked one friend home while he contemplated what he'd say to another.

* * *

Shikamaru watched his daughter move her pieces across the board, she was a mildly better player than Temari but only mildly.

Temari was good in her own right but didn't often take the game seriously, to her things like exposing cleavage to distract her husband were totally acceptable strategies, and Shikamaru had to admit that after a certain fashion they were, and the usually worked to at least distract him which was no doubt why Temari used them so often.

Luckily, Sumiko didn't seem to be taking after Temari in that regard, she took the game very seriously and even acted as if each piece were a living person, which Shikamaru had long ago realized was at least a bit related to her determination to represent those around her in picture or with toys. Shikamaru guessed that Sumiko probably thought the formations on the game board would really be implemented, and Shikamaru didn't know, maybe they would.

But he was pretty sure that, at least to Sumiko, the wooden pieces themselves weren't alive but they did represent living people and she was extremely cautious with their lives while still eager to find chances for victory, Shikamaru rather liked that.

It was such a shame the girl wasn't older, he could have used another strategic mind on the front, Temari would be good but the more minds the better as far as Shikamaru was concerned, he didn't want to have to do it all himself, if something happened to him it would cripple the whole invasion.

But he was running out of time to think about that sort of thing.

Naruto had left the village in secret a year after it was founded but he'd left a message saying he'd return.

And now he had, though he wasn't in the village itself they had received word from the frogs with whom Naruto often worked that he was already on his way back, they'd explained when he was likely to arrive but had refused to say where he'd show up "just in case you squeal" they'd said.

Shikamaru wished his daughter could be a strategist on the field and yet at the same time he, like most parents, didn't want her to ever have to fight in or see a war.

Being a parent was tricky . . . but so was Shikamaru.

"It's over, you've lost." He told Sumiko.

Sumiko looked at the board and shook her head slowly, "Tricky." She said.

Shikamaru laughed, "Very much so," he agreed. "Sometimes you have to be."

"I'll remember." Sumiko said with a nod.

"Good, remember it while you're going to bed because it's way past your bed time and if your mother knew you were up playing games she'd kill me."

"Mama lets me stay up late too." Sumiko said, "We play games too. And she taught me how to throw paper fans."

Shikamaru smirked, "Well she's an expert at destructive behavior."

Sumiko frowned, "She's right behind--"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean for her to hear it," Shikamaru laughed, reaching back and pulling his wife forward, Temari laughed and they kissed . . . then she punched his shoulder.

"Sorry," She said with a wink, "my destructive behavior again, I guess."

"What a troublesome woman." Shikamaru said with a smirk.

* * *

Hitomi was sitting down across from Ichiteru and next to Emiko.

The two sisters' husbands were discussing some Samurai thing outside, it was late at night and both Taiki and Saeki were fast asleep.

Hitomi sipped a cup of tea and whispered, "So that's what I know about the world. It's what I saw when I was traveling with Sasuke. There were more rogue ninja than what we managed to bring back, we avoided conflicts but had to fight a few times, we lost a couple of people, failed to get to a dozen or so before the Five could."

Ichiteru nodded slightly, "So the Five are a special unit of ninja trained by the emperor."

"Emperor Orochimaru, at least that's what Sasuke-sama thinks." Hitomi nodded, "Kabuto became the Shogun, and Orochimaru became the Emperor and the Divine Shadow, the Kamikage, proclaiming himself greater than any other Kage. We know he has a moderately sized ninja force protecting Konoha and uses the Iwagakure ninja to secure other points, he has some sort of major control over Iwa, maybe some sort of blackmail or something we're not sure what and we couldn't infiltrate the city." Hitomi said.

"But Konoha has twelve legendary ninja, and Kiri has seven, that's nineteen legends against just the Sound Five."

"Yes . . . however the Five have a sort of immortality Jutsu, they channel themselves into the body of another person, sometimes a follower or sometimes a prisoner but they need to be in pretty good physical shape we've learned. By taking over this other person's body the Five can fight with utter abandon because they can't die and they can use up every last bit of chakra because it doesn't matter if their host does, so we might not have the numbers advantage we think we do." Hitomi explained, she didn't have a problem telling this to civilians, she'd told it to Tai after all, even if they were working for the enemy the body jumping Jutsu was one Kabuto had used previously to the war's end, it wasn't really a secret technique.

"Besides that" Hitomi mentioned, "the Seven Swordsmen are in their third ninja generation, most of them don't measure up to the originals, and the Konoha Twelve are shattered, some of them are missing, some of them have . . . procreated, which probably reduces their effectiveness as ninja."

"What do you mean by that?" Ichiteru asked, "If anything I think having children only strengthens fighting spirit, a mother would do anything for her child, including die for them."

Hitomi smiled warily, "I know." She sighed, "That's part of the problem. Having a child could make some ninja, male or female, less willing to take risks, or it could make them _too _willing to take risks if they thought they could end the war sooner and thus protect their little ones. It's unfortunate that Shikamaru waited so long to attack again."

"He had a good reason." Emiko said.

"Emi-chan here is part of the strategic council," Ichiteru nodded.

Hitomi nodded, "That's fine, I'm sure he must have had a fantastic reason, but waiting so long only allowed the surviving ninja to raise families, which could complicate things. Having a family might also lead to defection, being willing to sell out your whole cause just to be sure your family is well taken care of."

Ichiteru smiled slightly, "I hope the Allied ninja are stronger than that."

"I do too." Hitomi admitted, "I hate to imagine the war lasting much longer . . . But then again I almost don't know what I'd do without it. I've fought it for a rather major portion of my life; I always thought I'd die fighting it. Now when it's over I guess I'll have to retire or something and raise Saeki. I wonder what I'll be."

"What do you mean?" Ichiteru asked, "Why can't you carry on being a ninja?"

"Ninja who're single parents leave orphans." Hitomi said calmly, "My father taught me that much."

Ichiteru was hesitant, then she said "Well . . . what happened to Saeki's father?"

"Killed before my helpless eyes." Hitomi said calmly, and sipped her tea. She added, "Taking extra risks, like I said."

Ichiteru shook her head, "That must have been terrible for you."

"I barely knew him." Hitomi said evenly.

"But he died for you?" Ichiteru asked, and glanced at Emiko who made a "so-so" gesture with her hand.

"He died for Saeki." Hitomi said.

"And you." Emiko added, though Hitomi wasn't sure how Emiko could possibly know that, she'd probably just said it to be comforting but Hitomi didn't really need comforting.

"Mostly Saeki I think." Hitomi shrugged, "But that was how he was . . ." Hitomi found herself suddenly choking up, which was utterly unexpected, her hand almost unconsciously moved to the side of her face and her finger traced over one of the blue feathers she wore in her hair, "he was noble like that . . ."

She shook her head, dispelling the memories, "But he didn't have to die, we could have all escaped, or I could have helped, I should have helped . . . I was just . . ."

"Helpless, as you said." Emiko said calmly.

Hitomi's head hung a bit.

She should have done something . . . It all happened so fast, but wasn't she a Jounin? Wasn't she practically as fast as Uchiha Sasuke? Who could move faster than either of them? What possible excuse did she have for not rescuing Kaoru? "I should have . . ." She shook her head.

"You probably didn't have enough time to do anything." Emiko said calmly.

"Mm . . ." Hitomi mumbled, still shaking her head. If nothing else she could have knocked him out of the way and died in his place, he'd had something to live for after all, she hadn't. She hated her life anyway, why would she have felt and anxiety over ending it?

She was sort of chewing her lower lip so she quickly organized herself, shook her head sharply and said, "It . . . it isn't relevant. Let's not talk about it."

"I'm sorry." Ichiteru said softly.

"Really, it's nothing." Hitomi lied, she suddenly wasn't quite sure what to do with her hands, they were just sort of there, she wasn't using them for anything.

She decided to focus on holding her teacup, it was shaking slightly so she very quickly set it down and placed her hands in her lap, but they were useless there too.

What had she been thinking? How was she going to take care of a child? She had a war to fight, a war to die in.

She closed her eyes, not that anyone would notice since her goggles shielded them, she took a few deep breaths.

She shouldn't be so affected by this; there had been nothing really serious between her and Kaoru. She'd kind of wanted there to be, especially at first but she'd . . .

Had she let him die deliberately? Had she been punishing him for not feeling the same way she did? She suddenly found a use for her hands as she buried her face in them, had she _let _Saeki's father die?

Was she mad at him? No . . . that was stupid.

She shook her head, "The war will end soon, win or lose I know neither side can back down this time. There can't be another four year wait but there can't be another four year war either."

Ichiteru was quiet for a minute, and then she whispered, "You won't take too many risks, will you?"

"Maybe I haven't been taking enough." Hitomi said softly.

"You have a child now, you know." Ichiteru said.

Hitomi closed her eyes, she took another sip of her tea and finished it, she set the cup down and said "When I learned my father had been killed it was one of the worst days of my life. But . . . when I learned my mother was dead . . . that didn't hit me as hard. See . . . I had a father until I was eleven, but my mother disappeared when I was eight years old. I don't even know if what I remember of her is real or imagined, I have no idea how to be a mother."

"You were doing fine from what I saw." Ichiteru said softly. "Nobody really knows how to be a mother, it's your best guess and maternal instinct, things you remember from your own mother are nice but a lot of people deliberately try not to use them."

"Well in any event Saeki won't remember me if I die, and if that did happen Endo would take care of her." Hitomi shook her head, "I'm sorry, I probably seem really dark and rude."

"You're just scared, we all are." Emiko said softly.

Hitomi nodded slightly, then said "I uh . . . I think I'll just go to sleep then, unless you have any other questions."

"Well you'll want to be awake a bit longer." Emiko said evenly.

Right then more people entered the room; the husbands of Emiko and Ichiteru were leading a pair in.

Yomiko and Hayato . . . "What are you two doing here?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"Oh well I dunno about him," Yomiko said, "but I had something really important to talk to you about."

Hitomi yawned but stood up and nodded, "Okay, Endo I hear you talk way too often as it is so I'll speak with Yomiko first."

Endo mimed being shot through the chest with an arrow, and then pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. The two Samurai generals gave him a "you're going to let a woman talk to you that way" look as Hitomi and Yomiko left the room to talk on the porch the two men had previously been using themselves.

"Listen Sensei," Yomiko said, "This isn't easy for me, but . . . what I'm about to talk to you about, Naomasa can't ever know I said it."

Hitomi massaged her forehead, "Okay . . . fine . . . what is it?" Hitomi noted the mixture of shame and anger on Yomiko's face and her head just hurt more. _This should be good, _Hitomi thought.

**To Be Continued . . .**

* * *

Note: Thanks for all the reviews, and comments, remember our message board. Things probably seem a bit sappy now but I wanted to spend a bit of time on the relationships before the fighting really starts. People have been asking about Saeki's relation to Hitomi, it will be explained very shortly, in fact this chapter kind of got started on it to a degree.


	8. Enter One Six Eight

**Chapter Seven**

Tenten slid casually up to Takumi's bar.

Konjo Takumi was formerly a Jounin of Kumogakure who'd defected to Konoha just before the city was sacked, leaving behind his family tavern.

Now that he was back in Kumogakure he'd resumed working in the tavern, along with his wife.

Konjo Kaori had pale almost paper white skin, and long silvery white hair. The woman was pale in the best of times but lately she'd been far more so.

Tenten sort of wondered if anything were wrong, and tried vainly to distract herself by thinking about what kind of problems Kaori might have, but really nothing took her mind off of Neji. How was he? Was he okay? Had he reached Gaara and Shikamaru? Would the Village Exiled be ready to support Cloud and Mist when they began their push?

She massaged her forehead, Kaori smiled, "Headache?" She asked.

Tenten smiled weakly, "Just worried."

"I can tell." Kaori said softly, "I worry about Yuu too, whenever he goes on a mission. He's a grown man, a Jounin, and still I worry." Kaori laughed, "And he's just my little brother, I can only imagine how you feel thinking about your _man_."

Tenten laughed weakly. "Well Neji is alone; I should have gone with him. Yuu at least has Oedo with him."

Kaori sighed, "That worries me too. That girl's a great ninja but . . . something about her has never seemed completely trustworthy."

"Spoken by the woman who betrayed her entire nation for the sake of love." Takumi said, walking up next to his wife and setting a cup of tea in front of Tenten.

"Tomoko's entire clan betrayed Konoha and joined Kabuto . . ." Tenten said, "but Tomoko's been loyal to the ninja cause itself, if not to Konoha." Tenten had to admit she herself had been surprised when Tomoko had decided to turn her back on Leaf and join Cloud instead, seemingly just because a boy she liked was a Cloud ninja.

Tomoko was the last of Chouji's students still alive, or at least they'd thought that until news reached them that her twin brother and former teammate Daisuke had survived too, but back when she made the decision to abandon her training under Chouji no one had known that.

Tenten found it difficult to accept someone that selfish. Chouji and the whole Village Exiled could have really used Tomoko. She could do things with metal that had always been amazing, now at Jounin level she could call up a perfect weapon from a dull or broken blade, she could move chains like serpents. She could have been building houses, or forging weapons for the invasion.

Tenten could see why Kaori wouldn't want her brother to be alone with a girl like that . . . but then Tenten knew it wasn't any of her business, as Kaori had said Yuu was a grown man now.

Takumi was slightly tall, and he had the look of a former Shinobi. He had black hair and tanned skin, unlike Kaori whose long hair went down to her waist Takumi's hair was short, Takumi was in excellent shape, Shinobi shape technically, even though he was a Samurai on paper.

Kaori on the other hand . . .

"You're six months along, you shouldn't be working." Takumi told his wife.

"Oh don't act like this is some strain, I'm just passing out drinks." Kaori said. She tilted her head towards her husband, "The sixth month he says, like it's some big deal."

"I wouldn't know from personal experience," Tenten said with just a tiny bit of self pity, "but you do seem more resilient than the average woman. When Hanabi had her child she was out of commission afterwards, you on the other hand, were training, sword in hand that same day."

"And you had twins." Takumi said.

"Which is probably why it was easier for me, see she had just the one and it took her forever, take a look at the twins and you just know they were racing each other out, I was finished in no time."

"Yeah right." Takumi scoffed, "Just one hour . . . multiplied by--"

Kaori elbowed him in the stomach, "That's right, _one _hour."

Tenten couldn't stop herself from smiling, she'd only been starting to get to know Takumi and Kaori at the time, but she did remember Kaori had been in labor for far more than just one hour.

The twins were competitive though, Tenten had seen that much. They were just two years old and already Tenten suspected Takako would strangle her brother if Takashi didn't find a way to take her out first.

They were amusing kids, their parents were nice and Takumi was ready to fight, Kaori wasn't but six months ago nobody had known that the invasion would reignite so soon so she couldn't be blamed for her current situation.

They were ready to fight, and so was she.

But all she could think of was Neji. Would he be ready to fight? Would he be okay? And what about Lee? Knowing that Neji had gone to the village exiled she'd started to worry about Lee too. How was he doing? What was he up to?

How were any of them doing?

Shikamaru and Temari, Chouji and Ino, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Sai, all the friends who'd gone to the village, how were they doing?

She'd know soon enough. Soon the invasion would begin, and Kabuto and Orochimaru would pay for the crimes they'd committed.

Whether Gaara and Shikamaru were ready to get up off their butts and help out or not, the Lightning ninja weren't going to wait any longer.

Would Neji be back in time? If he wasn't she'd have to protect Hinata like she promised, and learn to focus even with all the concern she felt for him.

She'd just have to find a way. Battle usually did bring clarity, when one was fighting for their life things like love didn't always bubble to the surface of one's mind.

Or maybe she was just remembering fighting in a romantic light of its own . . .

* * *

The Nara family house was fairly small. They didn't have many possessions and weren't looking to have a mansion or anything, even if he and his wife were high ranking officers.

Their house had just two bedrooms, one for them and one for the kids, it was meant as a constant reminder that they wouldn't be on the island for long, but it was also a bit of an irritation.

For example right now, because Sumiko and Shikaru were asleep Temari and Shikamaru were talking outside to avoid waking their children.

"Mists' Genin will be arriving for the Chuunin exam by the end of the week," Shikamaru said, "when they're done with that we'll launch our fleet and join up with our allies."

"So we're just going to go for it? No turning back?" Temari sounded hopeful.

Shikamaru nodded, "I keep thinking of how much work it's going to be. You know how I feel about that kind of thing."

Shikamaru had at one point expressed to his wife something that he had never again repeated nor would ever repeat to anyone else.

Being all but alone in planning the defense of Konoha while everyone from Naruto to Tsunade insisted that his genius would win the day for them had nearly killed him, there were days during the planning that he thought he rip his own hair out.

He may have made mistakes because of his own stress, and here he was about to do it all over again but unlike before where he was operating from a stationary defensible position he was now the invader, he would be constantly on the move, constantly getting new reports.

He'd opted to use an invasion corridor strategy, four separate invasion forces, even if some hotshot general found a way to stop one force the other three would keep moving.

The problems would be supplies and manpower, there were no reinforcements on the way from anywhere, baring finding a prison camp or one of Orochimaru's research facilities with capable ninja still in place, and even then Shikamaru wasn't sure how much he could trust the people they might find in those places.

So one of the few things he knew for certain was that the number of ninja he had wasn't going to go up very much . . . or at all.

Temari did her best to help him, but she was all he had. Kakashi had been lost, and Kotaro had been captured, barring any strategists in Sasuke's band Shikamaru was probably straight out of luck.

He found to his surprise that he'd fallen into his old thinking position without even realizing it.

Temari was looking out at the lantern lit village, quiet and lost in her own thoughts.

"Once we win this war," Shikamaru said, "I don't want to fight another."

"Who does?" Temari asked.

Shikamaru frowned, "Sometimes I think this war will kill me, but not with an enemy's blade or Jutsu . . . it's kind of a bother but sometimes I think I'll just burn out. Spread myself too thin . . . you know?"

Temari frowned, "I wish I knew how to keep your fire lit. My tricks don't seem to work like they used to."

Shikamaru laughed, "Your tricks are great, troublesome as you are you remind me of why I have to keep fighting . . . but I guess I just want a victory, a solid victory to convince me that this war can be won."

Temari held his hand, "Well I may have a few tricks to make that happen too." She said, "Shikamaru-kun if I could I'd kill every last Sound ninja and snatch victory for you with my own bloodied fist."

Shikamaru squeezed his wife's hand, "I know, and have I mentioned you're one terrifying woman?"

"Yes, but only three times today. I'm not losing my edge, am I?" Temari smirked.

Shikamaru laughed. He and Temari would just have to grab victory together, and he really did trust her more than anyone else, cared more about her than any other ninja, and yet didn't feel too much worry about her on the field.

There was the twinge of concern whenever the fighting got thick, but he knew she was one of the most powerful ninja in the world. She'd never die on him; she was too scary for that.

He just had to make sure he didn't die on her . . .

* * *

"Sensei," Yomiko said, "I need you to train me. I need you to teach me a Jutsu that Nao doesn't know, and make sure you never teach it to him."

Hitomi was genuinely surprised, she wasn't sure what she'd expected but a request for help was not it.

"I . . . any reason?" Hitomi asked.

"Well it's obvious I think," Yomiko scoffed, "Nao likes girls who give him the time of day and help him out, he liked Tomoko when she taught him Fire Summoning, he fell for you when you taught him Implosion Palm."

"Incineration Palm," Hitomi clarified, "and I see your point . . ." Training Nao wasn't all it took to build a bond with him, but the time the two would spend together would probably help.

"You can tell him that you're too weak since you just had a baby," Yomiko went on, "And then he'll have to come to me if he wants to learn the Jutsu."

Hitomi sighed, "I didn't . . . I mean . . ." She shook her head and laughed, "Come on, Sarutobi! Do you think I've been developing Jutsu?"

"Yes, we all have!" Yomiko said.

"You've had that luxury," Hitomi said, "I had to hide what I was, there was little to no training at all, let alone time to make up a new Jutsu."

Yomiko shook her head, "But you've got to have _something_."

"I learned a few things from Sasuke-sama, sure." Hitomi said, "But nothing really S ranked, not so far as fire Jutsu goes anyway."

"Teach me anything," Yomiko said, "Please. Nao should be with me, not you. I mean . . . no offense but--"

"None taken, you don't have to explain, I feel the same way." Hitomi laughed, "But . . . I mean do you really need me to teach you anything? I'd think a mixture of your interest and my lack of it would win out."

Yomiko hesitated then said "You don't lack interest."

Hitomi coughed, "Excuse me?"

"Back in Konoha you were always spending time with Nao, you can't say you weren't interested."

"I wasn't," Hitomi laughed, "I spent time with him mostly just for something to do, someone to talk to, it didn't mean anything."

"Whatever," Yomiko said, "fact of the matter is he likes you--"

"Oh come on, it's been four years, are so you sure he likes me? He doesn't even know me anymore." Hitomi said.

"How can you doubt that he still likes you?" Yomiko demanded.

"Maybe you're just the jealous type," Hitomi suggested.

Yomiko scowled, "Are you going to help me or not?"

Hitomi shook her head, "I've got nothing to teach you. I'm glad to tell Naomasa anything you like to get him chasing you instead of me, but I can't teach you any Jutsu if I don't _know _any you need to learn."

Yomiko hesitated then said "What about Genjutsu? Do you have any Genjutsu you could teach me that might help me? Maybe make me look more like Nao's type?"

Hitomi raised an eyebrow, "What? No. Genjutsu doesn't normally work on me so it was kind of hard to study it. Sasuke tried to teach me but I never took to it, I'd go as far as saying I tanked that class pretty badly."

"So you never use . . . I mean on yourself . . ."

Hitomi hesitated, "I do use a minor Genjutsu . . . something to make it easier to deal with strangers, but I don't see how you'd benefit from it."

"I knew it." Yomiko muttered.

"What?" Hitomi asked.

"Nothing." Yomiko said, looking into the distance. "It's just something I was talking to Nao about. You know it doesn't make any sense. I've been here with Nao for four years, once I settled on him I thought Kyoko was my only competition."

"Settled?" Hitomi blinked.

Yomiko seemed irritated, "You know, made my decision, don't try to think that just because I said it a certain way--"

"So don't care!" Hitomi said, raising her hand, "Please Yomiko-chan, I'm an old lady now."

"Why doesn't he see that?" Yomiko demanded, "I'm his _age_, he should like me!"

Hitomi folded her arms, "Why do you like Naomasa?"

Yomiko blinked, "What?"

"Why do you like him?" Hitomi asked.

Yomiko scowled, "Kyoko asked me the same thing. She thought maybe I just liked him for the wrong reasons, but that's not true! I like him because he's the strongest, sure, but that's not all. He's also very trusting and friendly, two things I'm not; he balances me out, alright? I feel comfortable when he's around, with other guys I just feel sort of worried about how I look but with Nao I know it doesn't matter because he's seen me at my worst already, you know? Not that I don't try to look good but . . ." Yomiko shook her head, "What do you think it means to be in love?"

Hitomi laughed softly, she glanced back into the house and sighed, "Being in love? Romantically? I don't know. I don't think I've ever really been in love romantically. Not ever. I can love an outfit; I can love a song, but a person? How can I love them if I can't trust them? How can I trust them when I know they're just going to hurt me? How can I risk hurting them? I hurt Naomasa pretty badly . . . and I didn't feel all that sorry for it."

"But he loves you for some reason." Yomiko scoffed.

"I think he'll realize he doesn't." Hitomi said, "I think when he and I speak he'll understand."

"I hope so," Yomiko said, "because my next best idea was challenging you to a duel and having you lose on purpose so he'd be impressed, but I'd feel kinda bad fighting a woman who just gave birth and all."

Hitomi laughed, she was about to explain the flaw with Yomiko's logic when Hayato cleared his throat, Yomiko shrugged and said, "Guess my turn's up. I'll stick around though 'cause Nao asked me to, so don't try any funny business when he gets here, I'll be watching you."

Hitomi sighed, "I though we established we're on the same side in this."

"Yeah well just in case you're trying to play me." Yomiko said, "I'm not about to trust a ninja, after all."

Hitomi smiled, "Well, who can blame you? After all you _are_ a ninja, you know what we're all about. But this time you have nothing to worry about."

* * *

The cell was dark and dreary, but he didn't really notice.

He sat in the dark holding his legs to his chest with his right arm.

A woman came to the cell and banged on the bars, "Prisoner number two-two-six, time for another dastardly experiment, hmm? Get your ass out of the cell and into the experiment chamber."

"Yes, prisoner number four." The man said softly, the woman slammed the bars and laughed cruelly.

"I'm not a prisoner, stupid, and neither will you be once you accept Lord Orochimaru."

The man ignored her, he considered attacking her right there.

He knew he couldn't win, he'd just die . . . but he wanted to attack her.

He couldn't die yet.

He wouldn't die yet.

Not until he made sure . . . of what exactly?

It got harder and harder to remember . . . every day it was like pieces of his mind disappeared, was he going insane?

No, never mind, just follow instructions . . . there would be less pain that way.

* * *

Shiroi herded the prisoner into the experiment chamber, Okatsu raised her gaze when the young man entered and smiled, "Ah, Two-two-six . . . how nice of you to come. Now, I'm authorized to inform you that after today's confession you'll be promoted to one-six-eight. Almost free, hmm?"

The prisoner said nothing at first, then grunted in acknowledgement of Okatsu's statement.

"Well, hop up on the examination table, One-six-eight." Okatsu said lightly, and the prisoner complied.

Okatsu didn't really show signs of aging, she was still a mean old bat. She was sort of Lord Kabuto's girlfriend, or something, Shiroi wasn't totally clear about that, but what she did know was that Okatsu was the most brutal instructor in the world.

She had trained all five members of the Sound Five and the most punishing training under Sasuke-sensei seemed generous compared to Okatsu, whose methods were more like torture than anything else. The evil woman had lightless eyes, not black and empty like a Hattori eye but nonetheless dark and devoid of any sort of emotion.

Her face was growing increasingly pale as she saw less and less of the outdoors and spent more and more of her time in the lab, her once shoulder length hair was halfway down to her waist now whenever she didn't tie it in a tight bun to keep it from getting in the way of her work, and it could just be Shiroi's imagination but Okatsu also seemed to be getting a lot thinner, the younger woman wondered if she was remembering to eat regularly or if experimenting on human bodies was taking up too much of her focus.

Not that it mattered if Okatsu-sensei died of starvation or from being stung to death by a swarm of bees, she didn't care how the older woman died, so long a she died.

Shiroi watched carefully as Okatsu retrieved her tools.

The older woman took her scalpel and sliced into the patient's arm right arm, "Ah yes, very nice . . ." She whispered, "Lets see . . . your blood is extremely thick, that's new." She glanced at her assisstant, "Obviously a response to the previous experiment."

"Yes ma'am." Ryu said calmly, writing down some information on his clipboard.

Ryu was a childhood friend of one of the Sound Five, Yukio, they were both former Sand Ninja who'd been trained by Temari of the Desert, and both had defected to Sound in the final moments of Konoha's demise. They were not very similar, while Yukio was tall and built fairly solid and muscular Ryu was short and very thin, he had short brown hair and green triangular tattoos on his cheeks and on the back of his hands. Like Okatsu Ryu wore the white jumpsuit and lavender flak jacket that made up the uniform of a Sound Ninja Medic, unlike Okatsu however, he _was _a Medic, she was just assigned to the Medic Corps because of her role in Lord Orochimaru's experiments.

Shiroi watched as Okatsu more or less dissected the patient's right arm, there was a time when it would have made her vomit, but she was used to it now.

She actually sort of looked forward to the grizzly show.

The things that Orochimaru, Kabuto and Okatsu learned would help perfect humanity, it just wasn't possible for Shiroi not to be interested.

Okatsu and Ryu made quite a team. Ryu was technically the captain of an entire squad of strike ninja, but because he was a medic Lord Kabuto had favored him when he defected along with Yukio, and when his duties did not call him elsewhere, had allowed Ryu to act as Okatsu's apprentice even as Okatsu acted as apprentice to both Kabuto and Orochimaru, learning from them and passing on to Ryu the grizzly trade of human experimentation.

And rumor had it that Ryu was more than just Okatsu's apprentice, according to Yukio Ryu had himself taught the old woman a thing or two, he had a real knack for experimentation it seemed.

He'd been fully taken in by the promises that it would benefit humanity, Yukio had once asked him if he had any reservations and he said that Ryu's response was "The benefit of many outweighs the suffering of a few, or a few hundred, since when is that new?"

Shiroi didn't know why but knowing that made her feel just a little uncomfortable around Ryu.

Maybe it was because she was selfish. She could see that truth in herself and she'd made her peace with it. She knew why she was serving Sound, she knew why she'd fought to bring the world under Orochimaru's control instead of fighting to keep it free, and she was happy with herself for it.

Ryu was probably selfish too, but he acted like he wasn't, he acted like everything he did was for mankind in general, at least if what Yukio said was true he did.

That was probably the issue.

Still, Shiroi liked to think that some small part of Ryu was kept awake at night by his experiments, she knew she used to be kept up at night imagining the terrible things Okatsu did.

But now she was okay with it, she'd gotten used to it all, maybe that was just how it was for Ryu too.

* * *

Sumiko, who'd gotten out of bed for a glass of water listened quietly to her parents talking about the war.

She sipped her water as she listened to their conversation then nodded to herself. She understood what she'd have to do.

She yawned and went to bed, careful not to wake her little brother.

Sumiko was a quiet child, she didn't see the point in talking out loud to herself, but as she lay awake in bed entire conversations, debates and outright arguments raged in her mind, silently, with only the occasional toss or turn in her bed.

When the sun rose she finally felt confident in her decision, and she'd tell her father just as soon as she got some sleep.

**To B Continued . . .**


	9. Not Tonight

**Chapter Eight**

Yomiko heisted, then left, Hayato stood next to Hitomi and said, "So, oh gloomy one, I've been thinking . . ."

"What about?" Hitomi asked.

Hayato smiled, "I thought you'd say "did it hurt" or something like that."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to not insult you." Hitomi rolled her eyes.

Hayato shrugged, "You'll do better next time. Look kiddo, I know you pretty well, know how you are about guys so listen to me about this Naomasa--"

"You don't know him." Hitomi pointed out.

"Not _well_, but I know him." Hayato said, rolling his eyes "Now there's a war on, if you ninja are too interested in your love lives you won't win. So I guess what I'm trying to say is . . ." Hayato trailed off, Hitomi punched him in the shoulder.

"Spit it out!" She snapped.

Hayato met her gaze, and he whispered "Just walk away, Hitomi. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Hitomi raised an eyebrow, "What? _You _don't want to see meget hurt?"

"He doesn't love you anymore, and I think you expect him to. I think that knowing or at least believing he was in love with you gave you a sort of feeling of acceptance, I think it made you feel worthwhile when you didn't think you were. I think realizing that neither one of you actually loves the other is going to hurt you a lot more than it will hurt him and I don't want to see that because for better or worse I consider you a friend."

Hitomi frowned, it was difficult to argue with the doctor's logic . . . knowing that anyone loved her in a romantic sense _had _made her feel, as he put it, worthwhile.

But she hesitated and glanced at Hayato, "What do you mean he doesn't love me anymore?"

"You said it yourself, he doesn't know you anymore. I've been with you for four years, kiddo, I've seen what you've become, who you are now. The teenager who went with me and Sasuke four years ago would never have done any of the things you've done lately, wouldn't wear soul feathers in her hair, wouldn't dress in anything other than black it seemed, wouldn't have taken her goggles off at all. It's that seventeen year old gloomy girl Naomasa's in love with, not the twenty one year old woman raising an infant and obsessing over her own death."

"You still call me a gloomy girl." Hitomi pointed out.

"I'm officially promoting you to Frowny Faced Femme Fatale." Hayato said simply.

"Gee, thanks." Hitomi sighed.

"Don't mention it." Hayato said. "Listen, given some time to get to know each other again, maybe he'll fall in love with the new you if you miss that feeling of false acceptance but I think we both know you don't need it anymore. You're stable enough on your own two legs; you don't need some boy's crush to hold you up. I admit, I don't know Naomasa personally, all I know is all you've told me about him and what I've observed of him myself, but it certainly does seem from some of the things you've said that you led him on at list a bit and one thing I think you need to keep in mind now is the kid--your kid."

Hitomi raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? What's shooting Nao down have to do with my daughter?"

"She's a part of your life now, you accepted that responsibility, remember?"

"Duh?" Hitomi rolled her eyes.

"Well whatever guy you end up with needs to be ready and able to help raise that child and a seventeen year old boy is not a prime candidate. Now I know _you _know that, but maybe nobody's told _him_, and I think this is something you need to be totally clear with him about, don't leave it to question or you're just leading him on again. Tell him "no" and walk away and you can both try to move on with your lives."

Hitomi sighed, "Sometimes I think it's sort of like you and I are a couple. I mean for real, not just pretending . . ." she also thought _mostly because you're always telling me what to do because you think you're looking out for me when really it just comes off as preaching, _but didn't say it.

"Because I'm always telling you what to do? How chauvinistic." Hayato guessed with a smirk, "Don't sound so enthusiastic, I think you and I are exactly what you and Naomasa will be once he gets over his feelings for you and accepts the girl that really likes him. We're very good friends, with our own sometimes violent way of communicating."

"Violent?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"You hit me . . . a lot." The doctor smirked, and Hitomi shoved him, which prompted him to say "Yes, you also push."

Hitomi frowned, "You know . . . you remind me so much of Miyuki." Hitomi suddenly tensed, "I want this war to end so badly . . . I want to find her and Hara, and I want to rescue them both. I want my friends back . . . I . . ."

Hayato put a hand on her shoulder, "You'll get them."

"If they're still alive." Hitomi said grimly.

"They will be," Hayato said but Hitomi could hear the doubt in his voice, "life's never fair exactly, but sometimes it'll at least treat you decently."

Hitomi nodded slowly, then she whispered "I know Nao doesn't know me anymore . . . but I don't really know him anymore either, and that worries me. What if I like him?"

"Then you're going to have to wait a year before you admit it to him." Hayato said evenly. "I know you ninja think you're legal adults once you get your headbands but to the rest of the world it's age eighteen, honey."

"I don't want to like him." Hitomi said softly, "I don't want to like anyone."

"Yes, yes, all your genetic concerns. You liked Kaoru, didn't you?"

Hitomi scoffed, "Nah. Not really."

"Right, you just followed him for how long was it, two months, before deciding to give up being a ninja and settle down in his village all on the off chance that he'd decide to--"

"Okay shut up!" Hitomi hissed, "Nobody is going to know any of that, okay? If I ever find Hara and Miyuki I don't want them to know that I gave up for even a moment . . . I don't want them to know I was willing to pretend to be someone I'm not when they were still out there somewhere needing me to fight for them."

"Three years of looking for something and finding no evidence of it whatsoever is enough to make anyone lose hope. You needed a vacation is all, so you took one. I'm pretty sure they'd forgive you for that." Hayato said with an uncharacteristically soothing tone.

Hitomi shook her head, "I wouldn't." She glanced back into the house, thinking about Saeki, "I don't."

Hayato laughed, "So dramatic." He whispered, "You're always so dramatic. Anyway, take what I said with a grain, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell Nao there's nothing between us and set him after Yomiko."

"Oh?" Hayato raised an eyebrow.

"You said set him after the girl who really likes him."

"Are you so sure that's Yomiko?" Hayato asked.

"I think so, yes." Hitomi said.

"And you're okay with that?" Hayato asked.

"Yes." Hitomi nodded, "I think I am."

"And what if he liked someone other than Yomiko?" Hayato asked.

"Like me?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"A different girl. Maybe a redhead."

Hitomi shrugged, "If it isn't me it's none of my business is it?"

Hayato smiled, "That's my gloomy--oops, I mean Frowny Faced Femme Fatale."

"Doesn't really roll off the tongue as easily, does it?" Hitomi smirked.

"Yeah but I can already tell it ticks you off more. Anyway the kid will be here soon, he wanted to talk to you about something or other, I deflected him so I could get to you first. Remember what Sasuke told you, you've had your vacation, it's time to work, no more distractions, no more dalliance. _Win_ _this_ _war_." Hayato said, and took his leave.

Hitomi stood on the balcony of Emiko-san's home waiting for Naomasa, massaging her forehead.

_Win._ She told herself. It was time to tell Naomasa in no uncertain terms _exactly _how she felt.

* * *

Okatsu sealed the stitches on One-six-eight's arm, she glanced at Ryu and said "Well then, that's done. Did you collect all the useful information?"

"Of course, ma'am." Ryu said, regarding the older woman.

Okatsu was utterly devoid of kindness, she had operated on One-six-eight's arm and removed his eye all without any chemicals to ease or erase the pain.

Though he'd gotten through it alive and with minimal fuss because of the previous experiments performed on him, Ryu was both impressed and horrified.

The experiments that proved successful on the prisoners were almost always used on the Five, Yukio would undergo more "enhancement" if these tests turned out to be successful, and by the look of them they would be.

The regeneration tests were working beautifully, One-six-eight's arm was healing, he wouldn't even need stitches, Okatsu had just enjoyed putting them in.

Ryu wondered sometimes who this former Shinobi had been. His head, like every other prisoner's was shaven, and his face blended in with every other inmate's face so even if Ryu had been aware of him before the war the young medic wasn't likely to have recognized him anyway.

Okatsu yawned and said "Well, we're the last one's to leave today, as usual. We'll take One-six-eight here to his comfy home," Okatsu was referring to One-six-eight's prison cell of course, "then our time is our own." She regarded him again, then bluntly asked, "Do you want to have sex with me tonight?"

Ryu wasn't really sure how to handle that question. He was eighteen, and Okatsu was just shy of double that. He didn't find her remotely attractive, not because of her age but because as perfect as her _body _might appear she herself was so utterly rotten and despicable the mere thought of touching her made his skin crawl, not that he'd ever let her know that.

But this was the first time she'd ever made such an offer so Ryu, unprepared for it, was unable to keep the look of shock from his face.

He quickly looked down at his clipboard and said "I do not believe Lord Kabuto would appreciate that level of familiarity between student and sensei."

"Oh you're not my student, you're a colleague Ryu-kun, you know that. You teach me just as much as I teach you, you're no student. My students are beneath me, who would have sex with dirt?" Okatsu said with a light laugh, "I'm bored and my usual partners would not be available at this hour. Never mind then. Have you somewhere to be?"

"Yes." Ryu said flatly.

He was thankful that it was true, he didn't want to risk lying to Okatsu, and if he had said "no" he wasn't sure what she'd make him do.

"Hmm. In that case you take our information and turn it in, I'll remain with One-six-eight a while longer." Okatsu said, checking the straps that held the prisoner down.

Ryu swallowed a lump in his throat, he knew exactly what Okatsu planned to do to the helpless man, and he'd be lying he if didn't admit that he himself had been tempted with some of the prettier female prisoners as well.

They were, after all, utterly at the mercy of their examiners. They had no rights, no say, no one to protect them, and Ryu had spent years as an adolescent boy without a girlfriend examining or overseeing female prisoners to whom he could do absolutely anything he wanted. Many of them wore nothing but rags so tattered they might as well have wore nothing, some of them indeed wore nothing, only prisoners rated higher than five hundred were issued uniforms.

From age fourteen to now, Ryu had had nothing but will power and his own sense of decency to stop him from taking the liberties that he knew others were taking with these "non-people" as they were referred to by the other scientists, medics and guards.

_Not tonight, you won't_, he thought, "Sensei, let me take the prisoner to his cell and turn in our data, you get some rest. If you hurry, you may catch our Lord Shogun before he retires."

Okatsu eyed him carefully with her empty, soulless eyes.

"Hmm, I see . . ." She said carefully, and Ryu wondered just what it was the half-mad woman thought she saw.

She nodded and took one last look at the prisoner, "Very well, who am I to refuse when my handsome young colleague offers to take on more work. Go then, return the prisoner and hand in our work. Enjoy the rest of your evening, Ryu-kun."

The young man nodded and shook his head, glancing down at One-six-eight.

_I know it might have been the only instant of pleasure you'll have known in four years, but believe me I did you a favor. _Ryu thought as he carried out his offer to Okatsu, and led the prisoner to his cell, clipboard in one hand and storage jar containing the half-blinded man's extracted eye in the other.

_Maybe the regeneration experiments would allow him to simply grow another . . . _Ryu thought, but as a medic and a sort of scientist, he knew that wasn't likely.

It would be wonderful though if they could. Then maybe all the deformities put upon the prisoners in the name of Orochimaru's so-called science could be put right.

But it wasn't likely, and even if it were the physical deformities were literally just the surface of things, there were more problems for the prisoners, especially former ninja, like One-six-eight.

There was nothing Ryu could do personally, other than try to be as quick, painless and professional as he could with them.

He'd joined Orochimaru for Yukio, his friend, to help him, to keep him from getting hurt working for their former enemy, but while Yukio had gone on to be one of the Five, Ryu was made to experiment on prisoners who ranged in age from newborn infants to half-dead ancients.

Civilians, ninja, soldiers, men, women, boys, girls. Whenever there was a missing person in Otogakure there were always two options; either they were dead, murdered and left to rot in an alley, or they'd been picked up off the streets by some of Orochimaru's ninja, his secret police.

Ryu couldn't imagine how anyone living all the time in Otogakure could possibly stand it, everything was cheerful and perfect by day, and by night things were quiet and calm, completely orderly there was no crime; no theft or drug trafficking, no prostitution, on the surface it was heaven on earth for anyone seeking a quiet peaceful life.

But beneath the surface, literally in the labyrinth beneath the city that had occasionally been used for hosting Chuunin examinations and as a shelter in times of distress, was an absolute hell on earth with well over four thousand souls trapped and tormented.

Their keepers were demons, one and all.

Ryu himself included. No matter how he felt on the inside on the outside he could never stop himself from going along with it, he could rationalize and he could pretend that he would fight them from the inside.

But that was a lie, so he didn't bother. He just accepted his duties and tried to make it as painless as possible for both himself and the prisoners. As he left One-six-eight at his cell he spotted a few prisoners who had a mark of execution on their doors.

Three of them, boys about four years old looking almost identical to one another.

How strange that they would catch Ryu's eye, but they seemed familiar, like someone he'd seen before, the spitting image of someone he knew . . .

"Still here, Ryu?" A voice asked, and he spun around to see Shiroi slinking over to him.

"I was just . . ."

"Visiting hours are over, hon." Shiroi said calmly.

"Then . . . may I ask what you are doing here?" Ryu asked very carefully, so as not to provoke Shiroi.

"Shopping. I need a body to replace one I lost in the Wave Country. It's not difficult to find a girl about my size and build, but finding one with all her fingers and toes still attached--so to speak--is much easier among the higher ranked patients. I have five candidates I was just checking on the last one." Shiroi said lightly, holding up a small stack of folders containing the prisoner's files.

"Then if you need nothing further I'll just be going." Ryu said, bowing slightly.

He left as quickly as he could, Shiroi frightened him and even sort of disgusted him, he didn't like being around her.

But still he couldn't stop wondering about those three boys set for termination. It wasn't _that _rare for prisoners to share cells but three in one cell? And all identical? And so familiar . . .

Ryu shook his head and kept wondering just who it was that they'd looked so similar to, why he couldn't quite put his finger on it, and why he should even care.

* * *

Naomasa smiled at Kyoko as her small house came into view.

"I know it's a big nothing and all, and we've got bigger fish to fry," he said, "but I keep thinking about it."

"You're escaping." Kyoko said with a slight shrug that made her long red hair wave in the night breeze, "It's all about distraction. You're nervous because you know we're going to invade soon, so am I, so is everyone I'd imagine and everyone's looking for something to distract them and keep them occupied while they wait."

Nao smiled, "Maybe. But shouldn't my distraction be a pleasant thing?"

"Not necessarily. For example my distraction has been using the rats in my home as moving targets for kunai practice."

Naomasa stared at Kyoko, was she joking? She smiled and said "I know it's not 'normal' or 'feminine' but then there's a lot of things I do that aren't normal or feminine, and rats aren't exactly sanitary."

"Like how you spit on all your food?" He suggested, and Kyoko smiled.

"I only do that when you're around, but I don't see why my bad habits are suddenly our topic, I'd guess you're looking for another distraction."

Nao smiled, "Sorry," he said. Kotaro had been Naomasa's best friend, and Kyoko had been Kotaro's girlfriend, she'd been there when he was captured and she resolutely believed he still lived, which had given Naomasa hope of finding his friend as well, she was also pretty much the only person of his generation that he could talk to whenever Yomiko was being too obnoxious to hang out with. The last thing he ever wanted to do was make Kyoko feel inferior or anything like that.

"It's fine," She said, "We can discuss it tomorrow . . . maybe with Shikamaru-sensei, he has experience with distractions, and knows how best to set them aside to focus on the work at hand."

Nao nodded, "I'll talk to him, thanks Kyoko-san."

The young woman smiled and nodded. She gave him a slight bow and said, "Thank you for walking me home, even if I didn't need the protection."

"Not a problem." Nao said. He put his hands in his coat pockets and said "It was a worthwhile conversation at least, now to go have a troublesome one."

Kyoko just smiled, "You'll be fine. Yomiko's waiting for you after all, if nothing else she can drag your bloody, beaten body back to your house."

Nao smiled and, bidding farewell to his teammate, turned and headed for Emiko's house.

He thought the entire walk about what to say to Hitomi, what he hoped to accomplish with the conversation, what his endgame was.

He knew he wanted to give her flak jacket back, tell her how he felt and--no, not tell her how he felt, don't tell her that, he wasn't sure anymore.

Pretty much from the moment he laid eyes on her he'd been obsessed, and the more he got to know her the more determined he was to be with her even though she'd never made any secret her disdain for his feelings.

But he was older now, he had a better grip on himself, or at least he liked to think he did.

He couldn't just let her run his life, he couldn't spend all his days dreaming about her.

He saw her standing on the porch of his sister Emiko's house, he saw through Emiko's open door that both his sisters and Yomiko were sitting at the table talking but Hitomi stood outside alone.

He had no doubt that she saw him in the lantern lit street, as a general rule of thumb with Hitomi, if you could see her she could probably see you so even though she wasn't facing him he smiled a forced smile and nodded.

Her gaze turned to him, but there was no reading her expression.

He wondered if he'd fallen out of practice, or if she was intentionally keeping her face masked. Because Hitomi wore a pair of black goggles at all times, ostensibly because her eyes were sensitive but more honestly because she was sensitive about her eyes, she could be a bit harder to read than others.

With Yomiko Nao would try to see whether or not she was staring at him, or raising her eyebrows or something, for example when she was surprised Yomiko tended to blink rapidly, Hitomi tended to tighten her lips. While Nao might watch Yomiko's eyes when talking to her, he had used to have to watch Hitomi's lips, which sort of made him want to kiss her pretty much all of the time.

Hitomi wore almost all black, blending in with the night so if she weren't standing on the lantern-lit porch he probably would have missed her, the street lanterns of the village weren't exactly bright, not like Konoha's had been anyway.

He wanted to smile just seeing her face, but he fought it back. He didn't want to act like an idiot this time, this wasn't a stupid grin, happy laughter reunion, this was a "where the _hell _have you been?" reunion.

But Emiko deflected him, "Naomasa-kun, do you want to come in? We've just made some tea, your friend Sarutobi is here."

"I'll just be a minute . . ." He turned to Hitomi who was watching him but said nothing. He held out her flak jacket, "I . . . brought this for you."

"Seems used." Hitomi said flatly.

"That's because it is. It's your old one, the one you left behind . . ." Nao trailed off and thought, but didn't say _it's the one you left in Kumogakure, you know, when you snuck out of the hospital and ran off on an adventure with Uchiha Sasuke instead of staying with _me_._

Hitomi smiled very slightly and took the jacket from him, "Thanks . . . and it's not remotely weird that you held onto it all this time," she added sarcastically.

Nao almost couldn't help but grin but he managed to stop himself and remind himself that for all he knew she hadn't meant it as a joke. She didn't need to be sarcastic, heck she'd sounded snide even, but hadn't her note had said to hold onto it? Here she was acting like he was some stalker or something.

He spoke sharply, "Well next time I won't bother then."

Hitomi's composure chanced noticeably at his sharp comment, she tensed a bit and her tone was a little more guarded when she said "Fine. Is that all?"

She was so stoic, she didn't _care _that he loved her, didn't _care _that he would have gone with her, would have done anything for her, she just stood there looking like she was bored or waiting for him to throw a punch, or maybe both.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" He demanded suddenly, surprised at himself, "I mean . . ." he shook his head and then said "Seriously, you just left?"

"Seems that way." Hitomi said dryly, "It was a mission, Uchiha needed me."

"You might have said "goodbye" or something." He said coldly.

"I might have if I had the time, but I didn't and it didn't seem important." Hitomi said simply. "Listen, kid--"

"Oh shut up," He snarled, "I haven't been a kid since the Chuunin exam."

"I'm sorry--"

"I'm not blaming you!" Naomasa snapped, "I did what I had to do, but it was to protect Yomiko, not because you wanted me to do it."

"That's good," Hitomi said, and she raised her hands, probably hoping to calm things down, "Yomiko would have died if you didn't help her, you did the right thing, but I'm still sorry . . . if I'd done my job as Chuunin examiner you never would have had to--"

"Shut up!" He said again, though he was trying to be quiet and not raise his voice at her he knew everyone inside was probably listening, he could only imagine what they might think . . .

He didn't care, all that mattered was Hitomi. Though she was standing right in front of him she was still so distant . . . she was the center of his world, and she didn't care, she didn't notice, he _loved _her, and back in Konoha she'd been too worried about something as idiotically superficial as her age to accept that.

Wasn't he grown up enough for her yet? Even when she was still a kid she'd acted like she was the adult and he was a child, now she really was an adult, a mother even, and he was still a child to her.

He shouldn't have been so confrontational, but it was easier to get angry than it was to face the real truth. After four years of trying, imagining, fantasizing about the day when he'd marry Hitomi she'd found someone else because he wasn't good enough for her and he never had been.

And she'd told him over and over again and he thought she was just lying to herself, or maybe trying to hide her feelings, he'd always felt like somewhere in her heart she loved him too, and so he'd been an idiot.

He slumped against the railing, and smiled wryly, "I'm never going to find the right words to make you feel for me what I feel for you, am I?"

Hitomi frowned, "What the hell do you want from me? You know how I am, _you _know better than _anyone_ how I feel about relationships, and yet you never seem to accept that! I _can't _be with you, I have problems with trust, intimacy, affection, everything people need in a relationship, I just can't do any of it!"

"Seems like you got over that for someone else." Nao scoffed.

Hitomi hesitated, then whispered "No I didn't."

"You had a kid, you must have decided one day that you wanted to--"

"No I didn't!" Hitomi shouted, then seemed embarrassed for being so loud and whispered harshly, "I never did! After all the time we spent together, all the things we said in confidence you don't get it? You really don't see it?" Hitomi scowled, she turned away from him. "I never got over my problems, if anything they've gotten worse . . . you need to move on and forget me, there's nothing between us."

"Yeah . . . I guess so." Naomasa whispered.

"I'm not the girl for you, I have a child to take care of now, you're not ready for that. Don't try to pretend you are . . . you're a kid, so _be _a kid in the time you have left before you need to be a Shinobi again."

Naomasa lowered his gaze, "You still think I'm just a child."

Hitomi frowned and whispered, "I respect you, and I trust you more than most others. Why can't that be enough? Why do you need a relationship? Why can't you be happy with what I _am_ offering?"

"Simple friendship?" Naomasa whispered.

"For me friendship is anything but simple, it's the best I can offer you and it's pretty much all I will offer you. No moonlit confessions of love, no holding hands or kissing, that's not me and even if it were . . . well damn it, I'm twenty two, three months after you turn eighteen I'll be twenty three, when you're twenty three I'll be damn near thirty, when you're thirty I'll be halfway through with that, when you're fifty five I'll be sixty, it's math, Ishida, and it's against us."

"So?" He asked. "Why do you care?"

"You need a wife you can grow old with, not one who's already got a head start. Maybe someone your own age like Yomiko." Hitomi shrugged, "A year, two years, hell even three and maybe I wouldn't mind . . . but five, Naomasa? Five years is too much, it's half a decade . . . I just can't do that to you."

Nao shrugged, "I can't decide how you feel . . . how about if I just say I missed you and I'm glad you're still alive, and then we call it a night?"

"Fine . . ." Hitomi whispered, "Good night, Naomasa."

They didn't kiss, hug or even shake hands, they just nodded to each other.

He had no idea how he was going to win Hitomi's heart, he wasn't sure it was even possible anymore.

When he'd been a kid he just assumed it would happen someday, but now that he was older he could see it wasn't going to be that easy.

Yomiko came out of the house and fell into step next to him as he left.

"Sorry I made you wait." He mumbled.

Yomiko suddenly reached out and took his hand, "I don't care." She said calmly.

Naomasa raised an eyebrow at Yomiko, what exactly did she mean by holding his hand?

It didn't matter, he didn't have the energy to concern himself with it, he just said "I'll take you home then."

"Sure . . ." Yomiko said.

She sounded like she wanted to say more, but she didn't, which was fine, Naomasa was all talked out that night.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Remember our message boards and check back later for the next Bonus Chapter!


	10. Lost and Found

**Chapter Nine**

Ryu entered the Ishida shop, this particular location was two stories high and had all sorts of goods from the other four great nations.

Sandals from the Land of Wind, coats from the Land of Lightning, books and various food items, it would probably be easier to figure out what the Ishida stores _didn't _sell than list all the things that they did.

Ryu just sort of wandered in, even though it was very late and he probably should have gone to sleep.

"Welcome!" A bright voice called out, he spotted Ishida Eri sitting in the area filled with books and scrolls, she was either organizing them or had been reading them and was now pretending to organize them since he'd shown up.

Either could be true with Eri. She was roughly average height with long dark brown hair that she wore in a pony tail going over her left shoulder, her eyes were colored to match and she wore a dress colored the red and white of the Ishida clan, and also the family Nehru jacket, even if it didn't look particularly feminine.

The coat hid her rather attractive figure, but when she wasn't wearing it Ryu had observed that she'd been somewhat shortchanged in the T&A departments, she wasn't _too_ flat on the top or bottom for Ryu's taste but her lack was still fairly noticeable, especially when compared to the bimbos most noblemen kept for company so that was probably why she wore the coat.

Ryu nodded to her and asked, "The husband around?"

"Daisuke and I aren't married yet, you know that!" Eri laughed, "And no, he's not here yet, he'll be here soon though."

Ryu nodded and browsed through some magazines about the Land of Waves--his next assignment--while he waited for the head of the Oedo clan.

Daisuke was just one year Ryu's senior but had become the head of his clan when his father had been killed in the burning of Konoha.

It'd been a surprise when Daisuke's father had died, since the entire Oedo clan had defected and would have been spared if they just stayed out of the fighting, but the body of the former Oedo patriarch had been found surrounded by slain Sound soldiers and a dead Konoha Shinobi. At the time it had been concluded that his death must have been an accident but it was anyone's guess what he was doing outside of the safe haven of his clan's main house.

Since Daisuke however, hadn't been one of the betraying Oedo, there had been concern initially that he might not let the clan join Sound and might use his father's death as a way of convincing them to rebel, so shortly into his service as a Sound Shinobi Ryu had been ordered to investigate Oedo Daisuke.

He never did report finding anything . . . as far as the official record was concerned Daisuke was a loyal servant of Sound, and had used his clan's special metal warping talents to build up a city of skyscrapers and glorious palaces for the empire's social elite.

As a fellow medic ninja, Daisuke was offered a position in the labs once the city was completed, but he'd turned down the offer . . . at Ryu's suggestion.

The two weren't close friends but Ryu trusted Daisuke, at least as much as he trusted anyone in the capital city.

The door opened behind Ryu and in stepped a man wearing a black outfit with silver trim. It had short sleeves, allowing him to show off his reasonably impressive arms, the arms of a blacksmith, Ryu supposed.

Oedo Daisuke was almost sickly pale, he'd always been fairly light skinned but recently Ryu had observed that the blacksmith architect seemed almost anemic, his blonde hair seemed to be prematurely graying and he could definitely do with a shave.

_Stress, probably. _Ryu thought.

Daisuke came into the store and smiled at his fiancée, then nodded to Ryu, "Not here to suggest the lab again, are you?"

Ryu had dissuaded Daisuke from working in the lab, but since that was a form of disloyalty he was required to report that he'd simply been unable to convince the blacksmith, so he was ordered to inquire again whenever he was in the city.

The young medic just shrugged.

Daisuke smiled and said "Well then, what brings you here?"

Ryu looked around, then very quietly he whispered, "I'm being sent back to the Land of Waves with my squad, Lady Akuma lost one of her bodies there to a Konoha fugitive."

Daisuke nodded slowly, "Okay . . . what else?"

"We anticipate a big attack soon, if the Konoha refugees really went into the Land of Water as we suspect, we'll need to be watching the coast, but if they went to Lightning as the strategists think, or even spent all this time hiding in Wind as the loonies believe, they could hit the capital while we still have the bulk of our forces on the coast."

Daisuke rubbed his chin and seemed surprised to feel stubble, "So you're here to suggest I join the militia again." Daisuke reasoned, and Ryu nodded.

"You never know, if the rebels bypass our main army they'll come straight here, someone's got to protect the city you and your clan worked so hard to build."

Daisuke nodded and glanced at Eri, "Never mind the buildings, I can rebuild buildings, it's the people who need to be protected."

_And your girlfriend, _Ryu guessed, "So you'll do it?"

"If it comes to war again, I'll do what's necessary." Daisuke nodded.

"A medic ninja would be a major asset, after all." Ryu added.

Daisuke nodded, "Of course . . . but unless there's a real need I'll just be keeping that part of my past to myself. I'm sure you know ninja aren't supposed to be so public anymore."

It was true, Lord Orochimaru had decreed restrictions on the number of ninja any Daimyo could have, though he himself had no restrictions and therefore was allowed to employ as many as he felt he needed, among them was Ryu.

There were also the Samurai, once again masters of the reinstituted social caste system, no military officer above Captain could fail to come from a Samurai family, that was just one of the ways the Emperor had tried to keep overly ambitious peasants from obtaining too much power.

Nevertheless the bulk of Sound's army was made up of peasants, conscripted soldiers or volunteers who had signed on in hopes of finding a better life with the pay and adventure the army promised, if Konoha's surviving ninja attacked the body count would be high but numbers would prevail, especially with the help of Sound's ninja.

If an attack really were coming its only hope was to bypass the main army and hit the capital, and that was exactly what High Command expected from Nara Shikamaru, the Demon's Genius.

Which was why even if Ryu were being watched by one of the Five--and he doubted he was--telling Daisuke to join the militia was not a treasonous move, it was simply trying to ensure that the empire had all the tools it needed.

But in truth all Ryu really wanted was to see Daisuke's reaction.

It hadn't been surprise.

* * *

Kiba sat in a boulder watching Shizune as she performed a healing chakra massage to Lady Tsunade's shoulders near the waters of their small oasis.

If Lady Tsunade were using the Jutsu to make herself appear younger it might have been kind of hot, but since she wasn't, it was just a middle aged woman rubbing an ancient old lady's shoulders with glowing hands.

Really living with two women was far from the party Kiba had imagined it would be as a teenager. That might have been because neither was his significant other, Tsunade was his former commanding officer, Shizune acted a lot like his older sister and all three of them were, technically, fugitive which killed any party atmosphere they might have otherwise managed.

They were currently residing near an oasis in the Land of Wind, disguised as common travelers. The usual story if anyone asked was that Tsunade was a traveling fortune teller, and that Kiba and Shizune were her children, though on occasions they shook it up and once Kiba had been the fortune teller, Shizune was his mother and Lady Tsunade was a walking corpse he'd reanimated with his incredible power.

Neither lady had actually liked that variant of their cover story and Kiba had quickly been stripped of the privilege of making up the cover story when they encountered new bands of people.

They'd traveled pretty far and wide in the four years since Konoha fell. At first they'd just been looking for a quiet town to settle down in, Kiba had imagined finding a blushing young bride and maybe raising hunting dogs for Samurai, but Tsunade had said that it wasn't time to retire yet, and so they'd spent a couple of years waging a sort of guerilla war in Wind, trying to personally spread doubt as to the whereabouts of Konoha's remaining ninja and keep the Emperor from invading Lightning or Water.

They'd heard rumors that Sasuke was doing much the same thing, traveling from place to place and engaging in the odd act of terrorism as was his wont, but they never ran into him, Kiba never even picked up a scent.

Tsunade claimed she had another motive too, one that kept her from simply going to Kumo, or hopping on a boat to Kiri, the two places where Konoha's refugees were rumored to have fled to, and indeed where Shikamaru had planned to fall back to.

But the old woman had yet to share it with her younger companions.

Still Kiba was pretty sure he knew what it was.

Lady Tsunade had been content to raise hell in Wind for the first year and a half since the war ended, then rumor reached them that Naruto had been spotted on the mainland, that's when she'd started traveling around between Earth and Wind, sometimes even going into Sound, which had once been Fire.

Kiba was pretty sure Tsunade was looking for Naruto, buy why believe a mere rumor?

Unless the former Hokage knew something her companions didn't.

In any event they were still alive, and it was in part due to Tsunade's past experience as a wanderer, she seemed to have a lot of contacts and hiding places.

Kiba yawned, then noticed something on the wind.

He tensed, and looked around . . .

Something smelled familiar.

"Ladies," he called down from the boulder, "I don't think we're going to be alone much longer."

* * *

Tomoko snapped her chain like a whip, the metal reacted to her whims and followed her mental commands, whipping her claws back and forth through the bandit ranks, removing weapons left and right.

Yuu caught the weapons she removed from the bandits and used his bloodline Jutsu to phase them into the ground or into rocks, their objective was to disarm the bandits and scare them into submission, not to slaughter them.

Lord Taiko, Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, had other plans for able bodied young men eager to carry swords and spears.

As a Genin Tomoko had been able to use two chains, it'd been sort of like wielding two bullwhips, which was to say, dangerous, and difficult, except that unlike running around with two whips, because the chains had responded to her every command it'd been effective, Tomoko had yet to see someone effectively fight with two whips, or at least do so in a way that could surpass her chain skills.

Now a Jounin, Tomoko used four chains, two wrapped around each wrist, they retreated into her oversized sleeves when they weren't in use.

She could now use one or two for defense, wrapping them around her torso, because they were still infused with her chakra and under her control she could make them move with her as if they were a slightly heavy shirt, this gave her protection against swords an spears while still being able to use her other chains for offense.

Not that that sort of protection was really necessary now, there was no point being careless just because the enemy was weak.

There were really only about thirty bandits, the fight would be over quickly except that one of them was a missing nin.

The young woman dodged and weaved and even substituted against Tomoko's chains, and seemed to know better than to let Yuu get too close to her.

Her head was shaved, and she wore rags, but the woman definitely knew how to use senbon and wore a clawed metal gauntlet.

If Tomoko could get one of her chains wrapped around that thing she could probably use her ability to crush it on the woman's hand, but crippling a fellow Shinobi was no more part of the plan than killing any of the bandits.

Really if it weren't for their real mission the two Jounin would never have been sent out on this task, it was Genin work, maybe Chuunin since there was a missing nin involved, but certainly not the sort of thing one sent two Jounin out to accomplish.

Tomoko removed the final weapon from the last bandit and Yuu buried it, only the missing nin was still putting up a fight.

"Stand down," Tomoko said, "We plan to offer you pardons!"

"The hell you do!" The woman cried, "You're ninja hunters, just like the rest, and I'll kill you just like the rest!"

For this woman to have survived four years that was probably no idle threat, but Tomoko was willing to bet she was better.

The rogue leapt into a tree and threw a flurry on senbon down at Tomoko, who used her chains as a sort of rotating shield, spinning around her the four of them kept the majority of the senbon from getting through and those they couldn't deflect Tomoko dodged.

But she spotted the trick the enemy ninja had tried to play, several of the needles she'd thrown were covered in explosive tags, she leapt into the air to avoid them just in time.

"Tomoko, above!" Yuu shouted, and Tomoko, feeling a pricking sensation in her spine looked up to see an umbrella floating above her.

"Ah hell . . ." The young woman grumbled and swept one of her chains out, smashing the umbrella into two pieces before it could unleash its deadly payload.

But it'd been a decoy, rather than unleashing senbon the handle had been laced with explosive tags, and as Tomoko smashed into them they went off.

She felt the vibrations rattle along her chains, she wasn't a flyer and so she couldn't stay in the air indefinitely, she began to fall down and saw that one of her chains was falling independently of herself, it seemed to have broken in the blast.

She hit the ground hard, but not as hard as she could have because Yuu was there to catch her.

The missing nin landed near Tomoko's discarded chain and laughed, "Not so hot now, are you? Now I'll let you live just long enough to return my men's weapons, then it's bye-bye little girls."

Yuu scowled, though he had soft features and long hair he was not a girl, still lots of people made the mistake.

Yuu didn't cut his hair for some religious reason or something like that, it was clan related but Tomoko had never really found out why, it seemed to be a sensitive or maybe embarrassing subject and it didn't matter to her anyway because she liked Yuu's hair long.

But she certainly wasn't going to let this uppity rogue ninja insult her man, she stood up, straightening herself and said "Play time's over!"

"If you're surrendering I accept--" The woman was cut off when Tomoko's discarded chain suddenly came to life and wrapped itself around her like a snake.

"It may not be attached to my body, but it's still coursing with my chakra," Tomoko explained, "I intentionally detached it when your explosives went off, did you really think your little bombs could break _my _metal? Guess again."

The woman struggled, then from the ground behind her rose an enormous badger.

The beast was twice the size of a horse and had a massive cleaver strapped to one side of its back and an enormous spiked club strapped to the other, it wrapped its massive paws around the missing nin and snarled, "Like the lady said, play time's over."

* * *

Kiba stood up and smirked when he saw the cloud approaching.

To anyone else it might just seem like a swarm of locusts doing whatever the heck locusts do in the deserts of the Land of Wind, but to Kiba, regardless of what it looked like it was what it smelled like that mattered.

And after four years it was a little difficult to place but once he recognized it, he decided it smelled pretty darn good.

The swarm of insects buzzed in close, they weren't locusts, they were something else.

They all seemed to retreat into the center of their swarm, they flew into the oversized sleeves of a single man in a way that absolutely defied logic, there should have been no way that a single man could fit so many bugs in his clothes or even inside his body, which was exactly where they were going.

But Inuzuka Kiba knew after years of training and fighting side by side that it was best not to question how Aburame Shino handled his herd of insects.

With him was another familiar face, but this one was sticking out his tongue and spitting.

"I told you not to open your mouth." Shino said evenly.

"I--ptoo--thought it was--ptoo--safe." Sai said, dusting himself off.

"Oh my gosh! Aren't you two a sight for sore eyes!" Shizune cried, throwing her arms around Shino and Sai, Tsunade stood apart but nodded to the two Jounin who had once been members of her Anbu Black Ops squads.

Kiba couldn't fight back his grin, he reached out and took Shino's hand, even though Shino wasn't really big on physical contact, "I can't believe it's you . . . I smelled the bugs, I thought it would be . . . y'know . . ."

"Yeah, I know." Shino said calmly.

They didn't need to mention the name of Shino's traitorous cousin, Aburame Kurai, who'd joined with Orochimaru to become one of the Sound Five.

Kiba hadn't seen Shino in four years, they'd been separated during the final fight so he had no idea how Shino felt about his cousin's defection, but Kiba knew how _he _would have felt if his cousin betrayed their country, and their way of life and joined the enemy.

"It's good to see you boys again," Tsunade said calmly, "but I can't help asking . . . friend or foe?"

Kiba hesitated, he hadn't even considered that Shino and Sai could have joined Sound . . .

But Sai smiled which still sort of creeped Kiba out because it didn't seem totally natural for the guy, and he said "Friend. We've come because the Kazekage is preparing his assault and needs more ninja, Chief Strategist Nara Shikamaru has a plan to take the capital city without causing too much fuss."

"And he trusted you with that knowledge, knowing you'd be going into enemy territory?" Shizune asked, disapprovingly.

"He trusted us with exactly that much knowledge." Shino shrugged, "Nothing more . . . except something he said would just worry the enemy if they heard it."

"What's that?" Tsunade asked.

"Three years ago Naruto left on some sort of pilgrimage, but now he's coming back . . . he's set the date, though only Shikamaru knows what it is, we're pretty sure it's the day he's set for the invasion."

Tsunade smiled, "And when is that?" Tsunade asked.

Shino said "Soon enough that after three months of trying to catch up to you three, we were beginning to worry that we'd miss it. You three aren't easy to find."

"Well we _were _trying not to be found at all, you could have been Sound ninja." Shizune said.

"Yes, we ran in to a few of those," Sai said, "we had to be careful not to provoke suspicion, Shikamaru gave us strict orders against drawing attention to ourselves."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Kiba asked, "Lets go join the army! Whip up an insect swarm to fly us away, Shino!"

"Whoa, whoa, I'm not riding that cloud of legs and antennae," Shizune protested.

"And you won't get to, either." Shino said, "They're fine in the desert where they can be mistaken for a locust swarm, but I wouldn't try to make it all the way to the island on the wings of my insects."

"Island? So you guys went to Kiri?" Kiba asked.

"Optimal choice at the time." Shino said.

"Well basically," Tsunade said, "You're telling me that we need to start walking?"

"Yes, essentially." Shino said.

"Well you boys are dressed to blend in in the city, but not in the desert, Kiba, get them some of your spare clothes and lets get marching." Tsunade said boldly, "if our Legendary Laze is planning a blitz of the Sound I darn well want to be a part of it."

Kiba smiled, that morning he'd been a rogue, now it wasn't even afternoon and already he was a Jounin of Konohagakure again, ready to report for duty and give the Sound hell.

They just had to make it to Kirigakure, no biggie, right? Sai and Shino wouldn't have come if they didn't have a way back . . .

But then Kiba wondered, "Hey, how long did you say you were looking for us?"

"Three months," Shino said shortly.

Kiba frowned, "How long was your mission window?"

Shino didn't answer, but Sai did.

"It was fifteen days, but we were on your scent so to speak, so we didn't give up, by the time our transport left we decided we might as well find you anyway."

Kiba groaned, "So you guys have no idea how we'll get back?"

"We have lots of ideas." Sai said.

Kiba shook his head, but Tsunade said, "It'll have to be good enough."

"Hey, the challenge is half the fun, we can sneak aboard a cargo ship and hijack it, or steal a military skiff, sink the rest of the ships in the harbor to throw off pursuit, stow away on some luxury yacht," Kiba was saying.

"It may be as simple as walking in to Kumogakure and asking for a ride." Shino pointed out.

"Even better!" Shizune smiled, "but we'll keep the "challenge" portion in mind."

"There's always surviving the walk to Kumogakure, trust me it isn't just smooth sailing from here," Sai said.

"You two," Tsunade said, "You sure know how to make an old woman feel . . . young."

Everyone stared at her, Shizune said, "I kind of thought you'd use your Genjutsu as you said that, Tsunade-sama."

"Shut up, I tried, it didn't work." The old woman growled, "Four years without using it, I must be out of practice . . . well never mind, I don't need to be attracting attention with my gorgeous body anyway, lets move out."

* * *

Tomoko smirked as the older woman emerged from the hole in the ground the giant badger had dug up.

Despite having traveled underground she still looked terribly primped and proper, from the frilly white shirt she wore under her dress uniform flak jacket instead of the field variant, to the matching dress uniform skirt and fashionable yet field functional shoes, Tosa Kimiko looked so unfit for field duty that even Tomoko, who knew the woman's reasons for dressing in that manner, sort of wanted to roll her eyes.

Kimiko-senpai had long black hair tied a braided pony tail today though usually she let it hang down her back, she liked to dress in a fancy manner because it caused her enemies not to take her seriously, and also because she said it felt nice to look feminine, which Tomoko guessed was probably a crack at her wearing pants and field issue flak jackets, but she knew that Kimiko had had to make all sorts of modifications to her outfit to make it field worthy and that wasn't the sort of thing Tomoko would bother with.

She was the real reason two Jounin had been sent to deal with bandits so close to the Sound border, Tosa Kimiko, the third member of their three man squad, had gone in to Otogakure itself, the capital city of the Empire and Yuu and Tomoko had come to get her back.

By all accounts it should have been a suicide mission, it was often attempted but rarely successful, still Kimiko-senpai had pulled it off, or at least pulled off the getting back alive portion, who knew if she'd gotten any useful data.

Kimiko-sensei regarded the captured enemy ninja, "Who're you?" She asked.

"My name is Chiwa . . . I was a ninja of the Rain country."

Tomoko nodded slowly, recognizing Chiwa now.

With her head shaven it was difficult to recognize her, but she'd been a Chuunin who led a squad of Genin out to rescue a group of prisoners that Tomoko's team had been transporting back before the war ended.

Chiwa and the Genin had gone against their superior's orders and as a result got themselves captured and handed over to Rain right alongside the prisoners they meant to rescue, it'd all been pretty funny really though Tomoko supposed Chiwa wouldn't agree.

"Huh," Kimiko-sensei said, "Well I guess you're Chiwa of Cloud now, unless you have any objections."

"You'd let me join your village?" Chiwa sounded stunned.

"You seem to know your stuff, kept my squad on their toes well enough, _anyway_!" Kimiko said, clapping her hands, "I've got news and presents!"

"What news?" Yuu asked.

"Presents?" Tomoko raised her eyebrow.

"Yes, yes, I have both," Tosa said, raising a satchel she carried on her back, "But first thing's first, we hand Chiwa and her bandits over to Lord Taiko's men back in town, you men," Kimiko shouted at the bandits, who'd been unable to escape because as they'd watched and rooted for Chiwa to defeat Tomoko and Yuu, Kimiko's badger minion had burrowed under them and surrounded them, "You're all going to serve in the Daimyo's army, it's a lot like being a bandit except you get paid and you need to shower at least once in a while . . . oh, and no pillaging, but like I said you get paid . . . um, anyway it's that or death so I assume you're all in favor?"

There were nods of acquiescence, Tomoko glanced at Yuu.

"Does she seem . . ."

"Out of sorts?" Yuu raised an eyebrow, "Just a bit."

Kimiko-sensei was usually very collected and intellectual, she was said to be Kumo's Nara Shikamaru though even she admitted she wasn't up to the comparison, she'd been in Konoha during its final throes, she'd seen Shikamaru's strategy and still talked about it, really Tomoko had decided shortly into knowing Tosa that she was a Shikamaru groupie.

Still she was _usually_ collected, right now she seemed giddy.

"What is it?" Yuu asked.

Kimiko held their wrists and waited as her summoned badgers led the prisoners away, then she said "I have maps, lots of maps, maps which show ways into Otogakure, we can sneak in even if they're on guard."

"How's that possible?" Tomoko gawked, "I thought your mission was to father intelligence on the population's mood and try to spread rumors if you could."

"Forget that, Oedo!" Kimiko laughed but kept her voice quiet so only they could hear them, "There's a _resistance_ _movement_! When we attack from the outside they'll bring things down from within, so my presents to you two, to our war effort are these maps and blueprints, my news is that there's a resistance movement in Otogakure, but Tomoko-chan you're about to get the greatest present of all!"

Tomoko hesitated, "I uh, I only like you as a friend, Kimiko-senpai."

Tosa shoved her playfully, then pulled her back and whispered into her ear so that no one else could hear and cupped her hands so no one who might be watching them could read her lips, "You've spent four years complaining about your clan, but guess who got us the blueprints and the maps? Your _brother_! The resistance leader is Oedo Daisuke!"

Tomoko felt her throat go dry.

Daisuke?

"We'll talk more about it when it's safer," Kimiko said with a wide grin, Tomoko couldn't help but smile too, not so much because of the tactical information but because, unless Kimiko-senpai was being duped, and Tomoko wasn't ruling that out, her brother wasn't really a traitor . . . at least not to Konoha.

They really were two of a kind, both loyal to Konoha by pretending to be loyal to others, no matter how she looked at it they were still a family of traitors in one way or another.

That helped to kill some of her mirth, but not all of it. She really hoped Daisuke really was still loyal to Konoha, she really hoped his information was accurate and trustworthy . . .

She hoped . . .

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **This is the preemptive bonus chapter for reaching one hundred reviews because I'm going to be going to sleep, then work, and won't have a chance to check back and post it later. So thanks for all the reviews, and thanks for reading even if you're not reviewing, thanks for all the support and we'll see you next time, enjoy!


	11. Kirigakure

**Chapter Ten**

Hitomi sat in the tree eating a piece of some odd fruit she couldn't identify.

Not that it mattered, she'd eaten it before and she wasn't dead yet, clearly, it was edible, still it might have been nice to have Endo around to identify it.

She watched the road for any sign of a passerby, but there were none.

She yawned and started to feel drowsy; she tossed her half-eaten fruit to the ground and got comfortable in the tree.

She'd sleep here, and decide on her next move later. It was late in the afternoon, it'd probably be dark when she woke up and travel was safer at night.

She started to nod off, her eyes fluttering open and closing again, she saw the world in glimpses.

She saw him coming, but she didn't think anything of it, if he saw her so what?

She was nearly asleep when she felt his hand on her shoulder. He shook her lightly.

Hitomi opened her eyes and lashed out with a knife, but the stranger staggered back, "H-hey!" He cried, stepping backwards.

Hitomi blinked a few times . . . he was upside down . . .

He was standing or rather clinging to the tree branch above her with his feet.

He must be a ninja; she went on her guard, "You--"

"Easy, I uh . . . well you shouldn't be sleeping in a tree."

"Maybe I'm a bird." Hitomi scowled, drawing another blade with her other hand.

"You don't look like one, you haven't got any feathers." The young man said with a slight smile, and Hitomi noted that he actually did, or at least he wore feathers.

Two long blue feathers tied behind his right ear, his black hair was short but the feathers looked like they would have gone down to his shoulders if he were standing up straight.

She held a knife in each hand and made sure he stayed at a distance. She didn't have kunai anymore, she'd left those with Sasuke-sama when she walked away from the troop, instead she had about fifteen different makeshift blades hidden on various parts of her person, two for stabbing, three for slashing, and ten for throwing.

She didn't want to be some crazy knife girl or anything, but she kept making them in case one broke during use, it couldn't' hurt to be prepared.

He raised his hands, or lowered them according to perspective, and said, "You shouldn't sleep in a tree, it's dangerous. I have a camp, come on."

Hitomi hesitated, "I don't know you."

"My name's Kaoru," He said with a slight smile, "what's your name?"

Hitomi hesitated, "Why do you care?"

"You're alone." Kaoru said simply.

Hitomi felt suspicious, as she did whenever a man was nice to her, she gripped both her blades tightly and said "This is my tree, I'm happy in it, move along."

Kaoru nodded slightly, "Okay . . . but if you get cold or hungry, my camp's just down the road, I'll leave a trail even a blind badger could follow, okay?"

Hitomi scoffed and Kaoru smiled weakly at her, then leapt out of the tree, landing lightly, he looked back at her, smiled a more genuine smile, and started down the road.

Hitomi scowled.

_I'll never see him again, _she thought resolutely. His ability to use his chakra to cling upside down to the tree branch would have interested her if she were still with Sasuke-sama. However, since she'd gone rogue there was no point in finding other ninja, nothing mattered.

* * *

Hitomi's eyes snapped open and she looked around.

She was in a house, a solid wooden house, lying on a futon, she wasn't in the woods, that'd just been a dream . . . or a memory.

Next to her was a cradle with Saeki inside of it and in another corner of the room was her gear and equipment, including her flak jacket.

Naomasa . . .

She frowned and lay on her futon staring at the ceiling.

Saeki was still fast asleep, which was unusual for her, normally she'd wake up and whine when the sun came out. Now the sun was out and she was still fast asleep.

Was she sick? Hitomi sat up and looked at her child.

Hitomi frowned when she saw Saeki's pretty face.

_Poor thing, _the young woman thought, _here all I do is selfishly think of how much better off you'd be without me . . . you've lost enough parents, haven't you? What kind of mother am I?"_

She shook her head and watched the almost-infant sleep for a while longer.

But she couldn't sleep, so instead she sat in the quiet room watching Saeki and thinking . . .

_What am I going to do with you? What am I going to do with myself? _She wondered. It felt like she was asking that a lot lately.

When she went to war Hayato would take care of Saeki, she didn't have any family in the village, no friends apart from Naomasa.

But Hayato was a talented doctor, he'd probably be more use with the army . . . he couldn't take Saeki with him there, and Hitomi didn't know anyone else.

Would she sit out the war? No, she couldn't . . .

What would she do?

Ichiteru knocked on the doorframe--there was no actual door--very lightly.

It was loud enough that Hitomi woke from her stupor but soft enough that Saeki didn't wake from her sleep.

Hitomi wondered if the universe had just provided an answer for her, Ichiteru seemed to really care about Saeki . . .

But she didn't want to just use Naomasa's sister, or anyone else.

She'd used Naomasa, and while she was fairly certain that she wasn't too bothered by it now, she wasn't in a hurry to take advantage of anyone else.

Ichiteru smiled slightly, "How are you doing?"

"Well enough." Hitomi said.

"Do you need to talk?" Ichiteru asked.

"No." Hitomi said flatly, she pulled her flak jacket on, "I uh . . . can you do me a favor and watch Saeki? I would take her with me, but I want to meet with Shikamaru and the Kazekage to discuss my men and--"

"No need to explain," Ichiteru said softly, "it's not a problem . . ."

"I really don't want to take advantage of you . . ." Hitomi said apologetically.

"And I don't want to take advantage of you, what's that have to do with anything? I like, Saeki-chan." Ichiteru said, with a shrug and a smile, "She's no trouble."

Hitomi felt guilt stab into her stomach . . . what if she asked Ichiteru-san to look after Saeki? Then she'd be free to go with the ninja to war, and Hayato could take care of the injured.

She frowned, she didn't want to think about that . . . but she did anyway.

She left the room, and then quickly left the house, rushing off towards the town hall where she hoped to find Shikamaru-senpai and Gaara-sama.

* * *

Temari yawned and looked over some of the papers Shikamaru had written up over the invasion.

All told, Suna and Konoha's force was about two hundred and fifty strong once they linked up with their people on the mainland.

The Chuunin exams would come first, then the invasion. The exam would be quick and most likely uneventful, nothing interesting had happened in the exams for a while and really the invasion was the main course, everyone would play nicely in anticipation of the big fish.

"Hmm . . . fish?" Temari considered aloud, wondering if she should make fish for her family's supper.

She sort of liked playing at being a homemaker, it was a challenge entirely removed from being a warrior but at the same time, it allowed her to be . . . feminine.

She liked that.

But she also hated being confined to the island, hated being _just _a housewife, she wanted to get her hands dirty and get back into the game.

She smirked when she saw a paper slipped into Shikamaru's plans by their daughter.

Sumiko had slid a picture of herself and her mother and father into the pile. Most people would note that there were a lot of shadows in the picture, but Temari knew that was just sort of how Sumiko drew, probably something everyone in the Nara family had in common.

Temari sighed and noted the absence of Shikaru from the picture. Sumiko didn't usually leave her brother out of her pictures, she adored him and whenever she drew a family portrait he was in it.

Odd, maybe this was an old picture.

Temari also noted that Sumiko had drawn a forehead protector on Shikamaru's shoulder, and one around her forehead, they hadn't wore their forehead protectors in quite a while so that seemed to confirm her suspicion that this was an older picture.

Maybe Sumiko felt nostalgic and so she put it where her mother and father would see it.

Shikamaru came in from outside and Temari raised an eyebrow at him, "I slept for three hours, so what did you do, lie down then get right up once I was asleep?"

"I used your snoring as a signal that it was all right to sneak out." Shikamaru shrugged.

Temari shook her head and handed him Sumiko's picture, "Here, Sumiko-chan wanted you to see this or something," Temari said it with exaggerated irritation; really she was more worried about Shikamaru not sleeping than anything else.

If Naruto ever came backs she'd slap the energetic blonde Hokage so hard he'd lose feeling in his jaw, he was Hokage and he just skipped town leaving everything on her husband's shoulders. Shikamaru wasn't Hokage, and he didn't want to be, he was taking on every responsibility for the invasion, and what he wasn't doing personally he was checking and double-checking.

His plans were becoming a massive tapestry, Temari half expected he was trying to think of every eventuality and even he knew that was pointless before the invasion even began.

She frowned, watching Shikamaru look at Sumiko's picture.

There were bags under his eyes and he seemed thinner than normal, he was wasting away, dying before her very eyes.

The cold thought of what might happen to her if he died crept through her mind. Could _she _go on living? She'd always imagined they'd die together really, maybe in battle or something.

Her children needed her, and she needed Shikamaru. She was proud to be a strong, independent woman, but damn it she needed the man she loved even if such a feeling wasn't strictly the way the daughter of the fourth Kazekage, and sister of the Fifth should admit to . . . it wasn't like she was saying it out loud.

She reached out and took her husband's hand, he seemed surprised by what, for her was about as girly as wearing all pink and carrying Kamatari in a shoulder bag, but she just looked into his eyes and said, "We're going to win . . . hell, Shikamaru, let this army loose on the mainland and your plans won't even be needed. Their own rage and blood lust will scare Orochimaru out of power."

He smiled at her but his eyes showed how weary he really was.

She sighed when she realized she hadn't made any breakfast for Sumiko and Shikaru when they entered the room.

"Just a second . . ." She said, "I'll uh . . ."

Sumiko grabbed and apple and tossed one to her brother who didn't bother trying to catch it so Temari lunged and caught it for him, setting it down on the table in front of him with a wry look.

"Breakfast!" Sumiko proclaimed, and then ran outside.

Shikaru grabbed his apple, seeing his sister run off he got up to chase after her, but Sumiko leaned halfway back through the doorway and said "My picture?"

Shikamaru smiled, "I saw it . . . very nice, Sumiko-chan."

Sumiko looked at Temari, and Temari smiled too, "It was perfect."

Sumiko's eyes widened and a smile spread across her pretty face, she ran outside after her brother with an elated shout.

"She's awfully worked up about that." Temari commented, "You'd think we've never said we like one of her pictures before."

Shikamaru shrugged and Temari grabbed his hand again, "What is it?" He asked.

"Go to sleep." Temari said.

"I'd love to, but I've got things to do today, I know it's a pain in the neck but work comes first."

"Health comes first, sleep!" Temari barked, then in a milder tone she said "I'll help get you nice and worn out if you like, to help you fall asleep . . ."

Shikamaru sighed as she dragged him to their bedroom and shoved him towards the bed.

Temari had barely begun undressing to "help" her husband fall asleep when she glanced at him and noted that he had already done so.

"Oh so you don't need any help." She rolled her eyes, and lay down on the bed next to him anyway.

She'd only slept for a few hours herself after all; she held him close and closed her own eyes.

When they woke up Shikamaru would probably make some joke about her being so boring that he couldn't resist sleep, and she'd act offended and probably hit him . . .

But for now she'd make sure he did sleep for as long as she could stay awake herself so that he didn't sneak off again.

And for no particular reason she commented, "And I don't snore . . ."

* * *

Sasuke stood on the deck of Karin's ship watching as the port of the Village Hidden in Mists came into view.

The city wasn't on the coast, but this was its official port, and they would be able to ride some sort of steam-powered tram the rest of the way, Karin had said the previous night.

Sasuke saw the dockworkers, and recognized one of them immediately as a Shinobi he'd seen while fighting with the Mist ninja in the final days of the war. It was likely that they were all ninja posing as mere soldiers, like many of Kirigakure's Shinobi.

He was interested in seeing the tram, Karin made it sound like a big nothing but he could tell she was trying to be cool.

He shook his head, Karin didn't seem to mind being a Mist ninja, but how could she serve Suigetsu when she'd once been so loyal to Orochimaru?

Sasuke could understand Juugo, Juugo had been Orochimaru's prisoner, a test subject, but Karin had been one of Orochimaru's officers, he would have thought that she of all people would not only want to return to Sound now that it held complete control, but that she would have been welcomed now that Orochimaru himself was back to assume that control.

He had trouble buying that she was remotely loyal to Suigetsu, the two could barely stand each other and Karin had more or less said that not having to see the Mizukage very often was a definite perk of her job.

That and being in control of a significant portion of the Mist military, and being the person who controlled contact with the Exiled Village.

_Is it just about power and authority for her, then? _Sasuke wondered.

Karin appeared then and adjusted her glasses, "We've arrived and the messenger birds are already flying out. The fool will want to see you once he knows you're here . . ." Karin leaned close and whispered, "I have an apartment somewhere around here . . . why not give him the slip and spend a little time with me . . . relaxing?"

Sasuke stepped away from her, climbed onto the rail of the ship, and leapt off onto the dock.

"Take me to your leader." He commanded, and Karin and her team leapt off after him, he supposed she probably nodded or something because the ninja he spoke to didn't move at first, instead looked past Sasuke at her.

"Unload the ship," She barked at her team, "I'll go on to make our report. Follow me, Sasuke-kun."

She led the way, shoving past the ninja guard Sasuke had spoken to, and he, eager to get things sorted out, followed.

He was a bit under whelmed when he saw the tram. It was a large metal box carriage on a sort of track in the middle of what appeared to be a very shallow manmade river.

And as soon as they were in it began to move, slowly at first and then building speed until it was moving slightly faster than a galloping horse, Sasuke stood near the front of it where there was a window to look outside of.

His Sharingan could pierce through the mist that gave the village its name, he watched as various trees and animals that to him seemed bizarre sped past, unperturbed by the tram, which, though fast, wasn't terribly loud.

Sasuke watched the scenery but didn't miss the way Karin decided to stand next to him and gradually inched closer and closer.

She was being awfully aggressive.

"How does the tram work?" Sasuke demanded before Karin could get too close.

"Ah, well it moves along the track, sucking in water which it converts to steam, and the steam propels it forward, simple really, now about my apartment--"

"Are there many of these in the city?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know," Karin said, "I'm barely ever in the actual city. I guess there must be a few."

Sasuke didn't visibly relax but he was pleased that Karin seemed to be accepting that nothing was going to happen.

As the city itself came into view Karin seemed to give up completely, and just started pacing in the tram, she said "The messenger birds have probably reached Suigetsu by now, if he isn't playing with his sword collection he'll be waiting for us, or at least have someone there to meet us."

Sasuke waited patiently until the tram started to slow, he wondered who operated it, how it knew when to stop. Did the water level drop or rise to make it slow?

Karin straightened her clothes a bit and adjusted her glasses again as the doors opened.

Karin's fist rose into the air in salute and she shouted, "Lord Mizukage, my report is . . ." She hesitated as Sasuke walked out of the tram and stood on an empty platform.

"What the . . . not even a squad of Genin?" Karin growled, looking around, "The bastard! I'm Commandant of the entire second fleet's ninja corps and he doesn't even send a single person to escort us to his offices?"

"Do you know where they are?" Sasuke asked, looking around for any puddles that might be Suigetsu trying to play a joke just to irritate Karin. He wondered if indeed leaving nobody to meet them at the platform had been done just to irritate Karin. He wondered if Suigetsu was in the water the tram's tracks were in.

"Of course I know where it is," Karin grumbled.

"Well then it shouldn't matter, let's go."

Karin got a malicious look in her eyes and smirked, "All right, let's go!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, she was so transparent, "I want to see Suigetsu, if you take me to your apartment I won't be pleased with you," He warned her in as non-threatening a manner as he could.

Karin sighed and nodded, they walked together some of the way before a pair of soldiers came rushing up, "Sorry madam, the Mizukage dispatched us to take you to his office but you arrived sooner than we'd anticipated."

"I see," Karin said, seeming to calm a bit, "Well I hope you realize I shall have to write you up for your incompetence, you should always be in position _ahead _of schedule, how else can you surprise a possible enemy? Don't let it happen again, or I'll have your spears broken over your backsides."

Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes at Karin, the guards had probably been ordered by Suigetsu to arrive late, so her threats were meaningless.

But he didn't have time for her posturing; he said nothing as the two soldiers, dressed in the gray and blue of the Water country, led them to the offices of the Mizukage.

* * *

Ino had to hop to avoid stepping on Inomi as she ran past, followed closely by her brother and Shikaru.

The ninja idol spotted Sumiko who was sitting on a mound of grass staring at the sky with a broad smile on her face. "What's up with you, why don't you play with the others?" She asked her.

"Little kids," the five year old said simply.

Ino smiled, Sumiko didn't usually mind playing with the other kids, and she was prone to running around the same as them, Ino wouldn't have imagined that a simple game of tag was outside of Sumiko's physical range or that the girl wouldn't want to participate.

But it didn't matter really, if the five year old was willing to sit still and behave maybe the others would stop running around so much when they were her age.

Ino sat down next to Sumiko and said "You seem happy."

Sumiko nodded vigorously, and said, "Uh-huh!"

Ino smiled, "Oh yeah? So what's up, then?"

Sumiko just beamed, and held a finger to her mouth.

Ino laughed softly, "I see, not telling, hmm?"

Sumiko was a quiet child at the best of times, she didn't speak very much and when she did it wasn't for a very long time.

But Ino spoke to her anyway, she and Temari were convinced that Sumiko was thinking too much and needed to be encouraged to talk.

The little girl seemed too pleased to talk today though and Ino let it go, content to sit on the grassy mound with Sumiko and watch the three little ones run around, tiring themselves out for their impending nap.

All the sweet tranquility only solidified Ino's resolve to fight of course. The prisoners Orochimaru had taken and indeed the populace he held under his control all deserved this happiness, the calm and joy of watching your children play in the sun, watching them grow up in a peaceful town . . .

Everyone deserved that, even evil people like the Sound Five deserved that . . .

Too bad their way of getting it was taking it away from everyone else. That was why people like Ino had to rise up and stop them . . . it wasn't just for the children, or the next generation, it was for their generation too, and for their elders, for all those they'd left behind when they fled.

It was for freedom, the freedom to enjoy life this thoroughly without the nagging knowledge that in a very short time it was going to come to an end, and she'd be running through the battlefield, doing her best to keep up with the younger ninja as they waged war one last time.

* * *

Naomasa swallowed a lump in his throat as he stood before the Kazekage himself in full uniform, which meant navy blue jumpsuit, flak jacket and forehead protector.

Shikamaru-sensei summoned them to the town hall, and they'd seen the Kazekage many times, but it was such an honor to be summoned before him, and so unnerving for Shikamaru-sensei not to be there.

Iruka-sensei was there of course, as were a few Jounin, like Haruno Sakura and Akimichi Chouji, and Yomiko's mother Kurenai.

"With the recommendation of your Sensei," Gaara began when the door suddenly burst open and Shikamaru and Temari stumbled in.

"Sorry!" Temari said, and dashed over to sit with the other Jounin while Shikamaru-sensei very calmly took his seat next to Gaara and yawned.

Gaara gave them both a mildly irritated look, then said, "Again, with the recommendation of your Sensei, it is the decision of myself, and the Jounin council acting in the absence of your Hokage, that Kyoko of Suna, Sarutobi Yomiko, and Ishida Naomasa, be promoted to the rank of Specialist Jounin."

Naomasa's throat went dry.

Jounin?

He was a Jounin?

That explained why there were all these extra Jounin. He swallowed very audibly and he heard Kyoko and Yomiko do the same.

Iruka-sensei stood up next, "With your permission, Lord Gaara," He said, "While we're at it, as Special Jounin you've been assigned the task of overseeing the Chuunin exams, which will be held in our village. Most of the work is already done for you; you'll have a month to decide who takes on which examination, and how you will examine the Genin."

Naomasa's world was spinning now; his squad mates were now Jounin and assigned to oversee the Chuunin exams?

He was on autopilot when he saluted and accepted his new rank, since the Jounin gathered apparently just to see them get promoted they all came over to offer their congratulations, even Yomiko's mother who was usually pretty cold towards Naomasa and Kyoko, seemed nice.

The three youths were herded out of the Kazekage's office since their legs didn't seem to be working properly, or at least Naomasa's weren't, Temari-sensei slapped them each on the back in turn, "Sorry we were late, Shikamaru slept in, Legendary Laze, and all."

Sakura smiled, "But I could tell he was proud of you guys too, even if he was half asleep."

"That's just his way." Chouji agreed.

"We'll have to make adjustments to their flak jackets," Kurenai commented.

"I'll take care of it," Temari-sensei said, taking their flak jackets, "I'll drop these off for you, they'll be ready well before the Chuunin exams."

There were subtle differences between the flak jacket of a Jounin and that of a Chuunin, and their flak jackets would have to be adjusted since the village didn't really have the capability to manufacture new ones.

Repair old ones sure, but manufacture complexly new flak jackets on a whim? Nope.

All the flak jackets that came into the village were imported from Kirigakure, which was rather costly, there was a bit of price gouging and with so little to export and no actual ninja contracts coming in, it was difficult to afford new jackets. So with the exception of newly promoted Chuunin the village tended to just repair and restore flak jackets than bother ordering new ones.

The three of them left the hallway, and Kurenai said "Your time's your own for the rest of the day but I suggest you spend it planning the exams, Iruka-san will help with that."

The older Shinobi nodded, "Gladly."

Naomasa however spotted someone.

Hitomi leaning against a wall talking to two of her subordinates from Sasuke's crew, he was half-tempted to go right to her, tell her he'd been promoted, maybe she'd respect him more. They made what counts for eye contact with Hitomi, he thought he'd just go over and tell her . . . maybe she'd care, maybe she wouldn't, but he wanted to tell her.

Maybe she'd see him as an adult if she knew he was going to be helping to run the Chuunin exams, he could use the excuse of asking her for help since she'd been a Chuunin examiner herself for a while, ask her for ideas.

But she seemed busy, and he'd be lying if he didn't admit that he was a little afraid of making a fool of himself.

Having her in the town . . . he wasn't sure he'd be able to ignore her.

He hesitated, he wanted to talk to her, Yomiko scoffed which snapped him out of his daze, and though he kept an eye on Hitomi he became aware of his companions again.

"I uh . . . I think I'll just--" Naomasa began but Kyoko grabbed his wrist before he could go to Hitomi.

"Please," Kyoko whispered, "let's focus on work, properly examining these kids will help them survive this war . . . let's worry about that first, okay? You can talk to Hijiri-san later."

"She's busy anyway." Yomiko added with a scoff.

Nao nodded, "Right . . . sorry."

But Kyoko didn't let go of his wrist, maybe she didn't trust him . . . he didn't blame her, he was still really tempted.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	12. Prison Break

**Chapter Eleven**

She smiled at him and said "It's not that big a deal."

He laughed weakly, "It's a huge deal. I could never do something like that! You're just . . ." He stopped himself.

"I'm what?" She asked, sounding worried.

He swallowed a lump in his throat and said "Amazing . . ."

She blushed a little and said "Well . . . I'm waiting . . ." then turned away, suddenly she was gone completely, and his eyes . . . his _eye _snapped open.

And she was gone.

She was always gone . . .

His head hurt, his eye hurt, his eye which wasn't _there_ hurt.

How could it hurt if it wasn't there?

He heard his breathing accelerating, but didn't really notice that he was himself breathing.

It was just a sound . . .

He rose from the stone floor and walked slowly to the bars of his cell.

He leaned against the cell door and waited, his mind screaming sounds he couldn't understand.

A small woman in white approached, smiling brightly.

She was a serpent maiden, in service of the temples; she was here to hear the confessions which really weren't confessions at all, just cries for mercy.

Didn't matter. He slammed on the bars of his cell and said "Priestess . . . confession . . ."

"You're too recently confessed, One-six-eight, you would only confess the same sins."

"Please . . ." He whispered.

The priestess sighed, she was young, there was still kindness in her so she smiled, "Okay, okay, but I can't promise it'll count, my superiors might just throw it right out," She said, placing her hand against the door, activating the Jutsu that allowed the door to open.

It made the key--the corresponding Jutsu in the hand of a serpent maiden--much harder to obtain.

The door opened slowly and One-six-eight stepped back, keeping a respectful distance from the priestess.

But when she turned her back he lunged, grabbing the back of her neck and slammed her against a wall.

"What are you--" She tried to protest before he tightened his grip and with a single, violent movement, snapped her neck.

He threw her dead body over his shoulder and left his cell.

She hadn't managed to close it again in time, something even rookies were trained to do.

Then again rookies were also trained not to turn their backs on prisoners.

"Whatever." One-six-eight said to himself, and then took her hand, pressing it against another cell door.

And then another.

And then another.

He unlocked every door he could, but not every prisoner dared to come out.

Of the doors he unlocked, and he knew there were several dozen, only five other prisoners followed him.

He turned to one prisoner who had a cursed seal and had activated it, "Rip her arms off, take one and you," he said, pointing to another prisoner, "take another . . . open every cell you can."

"What about you?" The second prisoner asked.

One-six-eight grinned wolfishly, "I'll distract the guards; they'll be here soon."

The cursed prisoner very easily removed the dead woman's arms, they discarded the body.

One-six-eight watched the prisoners run off, doing his bidding.

It was strange and a little thrilling . . . was it all pure chance or had something happened to make the universe give him his freedom, if only for a moment?

He smiled, thinking of her . . . he knew her face, but he couldn't even remember her name . . .

That'd change once he was finally free.

He'd find her . . .

He raised his right hand when he saw the first guard and activated the enhancements that Orochimaru had granted him.

The hand sprouted claws, and scales that ran up the arm.

One-six-eight shouted to his growing army of freed prisoners, "Kill them!"

A dozen men and women rushed past him, the guards hesitated and it proved fatal.

The first prisoner, a girl about thirteen years old slammed into the first guard and bit down on his throat, One-six-eight saw the blood flowing down the man's neck and saw the wings sprout from the girl's back, her abilities were activated by blood . . .

He wasn't sure why he cared; she was dead the next instant.

The other guard brought his blade down on her neck before another cursed prisoner leapt on him.

With two simple words the situation deteriorated into utter chaos, the prisoners who were afraid to leave before came out, some of them spurned on by blood lust, others no doubt eager to get themselves killed and therefore permanently freed from their imprisonment.

One-six-eight didn't care why, they all deserved their freedom however they could claim it.

And he would take his as well.

He slammed his clawed fist through a soldier's chest, any minute now ninja would be arriving to suppress them, he wasn't sure how he knew that but he did . . . had he done this before? Had any of this happened in the past?

How could he be sure when he didn't even know his own name anymore? When days, months, _years _blended together so perfectly . . . was this not his first escape attempt?

It didn't matter, first second or third it would succeed it _had _to. Soldiers were here, ninja would come, they'd try to stop him, they'd also try not to kill the prisoners, but to subdue them instead.

A cruelty the prisoners would not extend to them, the ninja would be slaughtered this time . . . this time?

Never mind, they'd all be killed and he'd be free, he'd find _her_.

She'd know his name . . . she had to. When he found her he'd be free . . .

For the first time he could remember, his mouth twisted itself into a genuine smile.

* * *

"You two will be the squad captains," Hitomi said, "You've been with us the longest and you know what you're doing."

"And you're in charge of the platoon?" The first captain, a Chuunin named Kurita asked.

"As per Lord Gaara's orders, yes," Hitomi said, "You'll report to me whenever there's something to report until Sasuke-senpai gets back to us. Then we're his platoon again right and proper."

She noticed Naomasa and his team, their eyes met and she felt her heart rate increase.

"You okay, commander?" Yodama, the other squad captain asked her.

The young woman nodded slightly, "Sure." She said, "It's nothing . . . let's see, anything else . . . uh . . ."

She didn't want to dismiss them, if she dismissed them now Naomasa might think that she wanted to talk to him and she didn't, it would be far too awkward after last night, besides if he was going to talk to anyone it should be Yomiko.

To her relief however his teammate Kyoko grabbed his wrist and whispered something into his ear.

Nao seemed embarrassed and said something back to her and they left.

Hitomi frowned, her eyes didn't really miss anything, so they didn't miss the fact that Kyoko didn't let go of Naomasa's wrist as they walked off.

The heck was that about? Was there something going on there?

Why should she care?

"Um, work with each other to train your squads, run a war game today and survival training tonight."

"Survival?" Kurita asked.

"Against each other." Hitomi said, and silently added, _and my team as well._

That'd be a little surprise, but if they were really worthy of the trust she was putting in them they'd guess her intentions and prepare their squads.

She knew her platoon was going to be used more often than most because they knew the terrain the army would be going over and they had experience dodging patrols, they'd be in danger a lot and she wanted them ready.

"All right, dismissed," She said and turned back towards the Hirate household.

She'd have to relieve Ichiteru-san; she didn't want to force the poor woman to watch Saeki for too long, she'd drop the girl off with Hayato.

She shoved her hands in her pockets and heard someone behind her shout "Hitomi-san!"

She spun around and frowned, "Who-ah . . . huh." She frowned, "What's up, Tai?"

The little Samurai smiled, "I came to see my uncle. Aunt Emiko guessed I'd see him here at town hall."

"You just missed him." Hitomi said.

"No, I saw him, but he didn't see me and he ran off . . . so Aunty was right, I _saw _him . . . I guess. You two are friends right?" Tai asked.

Hitomi hesitated, then nodded, "Sure, I think so."

Tai gave her a very serious look and said, "Can you take me wherever he went? I bet he's doing ninja stuff, so you're a ninja, you must know where that would be."

"Actually I'm afraid I don't, I'm new here, remember?" Hitomi shrugged.

Taiki frowned, "Oh . . . well where're you going?"

"Back to your aunt's place to take care of my daughter . . ." Hitomi said, a little put off by the sentence.

She really hadn't thought she'd ever say the words "my daughter" in her life.

It wasn't _that _bad though. She frowned at Taiki . . . she had an idea.

She had a simple, harmless, and yet utterly cruel idea.

She was going to use yet another person to achieve her own ends, her own desires . . . and Tai was even younger than Naomasa had been.

Well she wasn't asking Tai to kill anyone; she just needed him to be a seemingly impartial voice. She said to him, "Your uncle . . . you uh . . . you think you can do both him and me a favor?"

"Whazzat?" Tai asked, kicking a rock as they walked.

"There's this girl on his team who _really _likes him, but he doesn't notice her. Maybe when you have the chance, tell him you think she's pretty."

"But what if she isn't?" Tai protested.

"Well I think she is, and it doesn't matter if _you _really think she is, it's important that Naomasa notices that she is so if you don't think she's pretty just lie."

Tai gave her a sideways look, "This girl isn't you is it?"

"What? No, I said a girl on his team." Hitomi said.

"Because you know he already likes you." Tai said with a shrug.

"I know that, he needs to like someone else." Hitomi said. Tai was proving to be pretty unwilling pawn.

Taiki frowned at her, "Why?"

"Because I'm a grown up and he isn't." Hitomi said flatly.

Tai hesitated, and then nodded, "Okay, I'll do it. But I don't see why."

"Okay, the girl you need to say this about--"

"I think I know who it is." Tai said.

Hitomi considered. Kyoko had been holding on to Nao as they walked away, Tai might have thought that was significant, so she said "No, not her, the other one."

"Huh? Is the other one even on his team?" Tai asked, "Because there was this picture I saw--"

"What? What picture--you know what, never mind, the girl with black hair, not the red head." Hitomi said.

Tai shrugged. "Okay . . . I'll tell him when I see him."

The little boy ran off to do whatever it was he meant to do in the first place, leaving Hitomi to walk the rest of the way alone.

She sighed, and whispered a preemptive "sorry" even though no one was around to hear it.

She was now using Taiki for ultimately selfish reasons, even if she tried to pretend it was to encourage Naomasa to notice Yomiko the truth was she wanted Naomasa to leave _her _alone . . .

She couldn't handle having him around . . . he was just too . . .

She shook her head and shoved her hands into her pockets again.

She wasn't going to think about any of that.

Fight the war, survive and win, try to work out some sort of life for herself and Saeki; that was what was important.

Someday.

This seemed to be something she told herself a lot lately too.

But she smiled. Maybe she should try focusing on the positive side . . . after four years the wait wasn't much longer.

* * *

Sasuke was far from surprised to see Suigetsu sitting on a throne being served a bowl of fruit by a woman who was either wearing a really tight bikini or had had one painted onto her.

It wasn't expected, but it still wasn't surprising.

"Wh-what the--" Karin exploded, "I come here, I bring Sasuke-kun and you can't come see us because you're . . . you're . . . what are you doing? Wh-who the hell is this?"

"Oh don't be jealous," Suigetsu taunted, "If you want to take her place you need to wear a bikini though. Hey, I don't make the rules . . . no wait, I _do_, and man it's neat."

"Never mind that, do you have any idea how rude it is to make me wait? Worse how rude it is to make Sasuke-kun wait?"

Suigetsu raised an eyebrow at them, "Rude to make you wait? What were you waiting for? Of course I'm not going to meet you at the docks or the tram station, be real, why should I drop everything for you two? This isn't like the old days, _I _am the Mizukage, _I _am in charge and I had work to do."

"Oh yes, clearly," Karin scowled.

Sasuke however folded his arms and said "I didn't come here presuming to order you around, Mizukage-sama."

Suigetsu hadn't been so keen to show off his authority when last they met, he treated the position of Mizukage more like a joke. Maybe he'd thought it was just a field commission, or maybe four years of bowing and scraping and pretending to serve Orochimaru again had left him feeling insecure about his own authority.

Four years ago he'd been happy to see Sasuke again, but now maybe seeing his former squad captain made him feel insecure.

Sasuke supposed that Karin's outburst in front of him probably made Suigetsu feel like the group was reverting to its old dynamic, Sasuke leading, Karin screaming orders, and him and Juugo just following.

If Suigetsu was insecure it could cause problems for the alliance and for Sasuke personally, that wasn't going to happen.

Maybe Suigetsu was unfit for the position of Mizukage . . .

Maybe someone needed to replace him . . . someone like . . .

Sasuke blinked, expelling the though from his mind.

But then why not? Naruto was Hokage, Gaara was Kazekage . . .

Suigetsu met his gaze and the young Mizukage's eyes hardened, Sasuke would almost swear Suigetsu knew what he was considering.

Suigetsu's eyes snapped to Karin, Sasuke didn't have to think too hard to know who she would support if a fight broke out . . .

_Not today. _Sasuke decided and he bowed before Suigetsu, "Four years ago we had an agreement, I would serve you if you helped Konoha and it still fell. We didn't arrive in time and I broke our bargain by running off and trying to raise a rebellion, and I admit I'm here now only because I failed."

"I let you go, altering our agreement, I thought you caught on to that." Suigetsu said, calming down a bit, but only a bit.

Sasuke shrugged, "In any event I was hoping you were ready for another attempt at overthrowing Sound. This time we kill Orochimaru for good and his pet rat Kabuto too."

Suigetsu scoffed and glanced at Karin who nodded.

"Shikamaru's ready to move forward once the Chuunin exams are finished. I can dispatch the orders to my men, they'll arrive on Exile Island in another day or two to start helping with the preparations, just let the Daimyo know and we'll be ready for the invasion."

Suigetsu nodded, "Hear that Juugo?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, Juugo was in the room?

Wouldn't Karin have sensed him?

Sasuke glanced at the woman in the bikini, had Juugo transformed? It had seemed strange that Suigetsu didn't dismiss the woman before speaking business, was she Juugo transformed on his Mizukage's orders just to irritate Karin?

But Suigetsu reached into some pocket in his robes and tossed a crystal ball in the air, Juugo's image was spinning around inside of it, "Yes Mizukage-sama, I heard."

"And what was the word from Lightning? Let Karin and Sasuke hear it."

"Their efforts to infiltrate Konoha have succeeded; their army is preparing to mobilize. Lord Taiko wants to "bring his wife home" before the end of the year." Juugo said.

Suigetsu laughed, "See the picture? Lightning's raring to go and they don't even know that Fire and Wind's refugees are too, a fight like that would be enough to excite me on its own, but knowing that everyone else is ready to go? It'll be just like the last war, except instead of the whole world against Fire and Wind it'll be the whole world against Sound and Earth; it's going to be great!"

Sasuke did indeed see the picture; it wasn't a good one though.

Lord Taiko of the Land of Lightning was indeed married to the princess of the Land of Fire . . . and with her father, the previous Daimyo and all of her brothers dead after their last stand against Sound she--or rather _her husband--_had a fair claim to the Lands of Fire . . .

If the invasion went off properly he'd probably expect the loyalty of the Hokage and his ninja, assuming Naruto was back by then.

Which meant that the balance and stability of the Great Nations could still be thrown off even if they won. If one Daimyo still controlled two nations . . .

But then Shikamaru and Gaara were planning to try to keep the Empire intact, simply replacing the Emperor and Kamikage with more trustworthy individuals . . .

If Taiko knew that he'd almost certainly aim to make himself the Emperor, Lightning might be mobilizing to fight on the same side as Leaf, Mist and Sand, but they might not be true allies.

Sasuke folded his arms and said "Well, in that case I guess all that's left is to fight."

"And I can't wait." Suigetsu said with a chuckle, "Call the seven swordsmen, call all the Jounin, get every Genin over to Exile for the exam and then when they're all Chuunin or losers or whatever we hit the Land of Waves like a tsunami, with Team Hawk leading the way . . . under new management of course." Suigetsu decreed cheerfully.

As long as the war was won Sasuke didn't care who was leading.

But he didn't forget his thoughts.

Naruto was Hokage . . . Gaara was Kazekage . . . they had their villages. Didn't he deserve to rule over his own? He'd have to watch Suigetsu very carefully. Not only because of his own ambitions, but because he was pretty sure Suigetsu had figured out what they were even before he had.

What else had the Mizukage figured out before Sasuke?

* * *

One-six-eight gripped the enemy kunoichi in is clawed hand and tore her short sword away with his left, he deftly spun it around and stabbed a guard in the chest as the man tried to attack his back.

The prisoner then lashed out; using the helpless kunoichi as a living club he slammed her against another guard and then raising her high into the air--

"Enough." A firm voice said and before One-six-eight could lower his claw and turn both the female ninja and the prone guard into a red paste he was frozen.

His eye alone worked, he glanced towards the sound of the voice and saw a pair of shoes.

Fancy, nobleman's shoes.

"I think today's exercise is complete, don't you, Okatsu?" The voice asked.

"Yes, Lord Kabuto." A familiar female voice purred. "This crop is very promising."

"Just as Lord Orochimaru predicted."

One-six-eight struggled against whatever it was that was holding him but in the end he only stood up straight and released the kunoichi he held.

She staggered away, avoiding Kabuto and Okatsu as they walked leisurely in front of the prisoner.

He struggled to look up, to look them in the face but though he was standing up straight his head remained downcast, his eye could make out their midsections, but not their faces.

"One-six-eight, making us very proud I see," Okatsu said, "You know I had a feeling about this one."

"Well it used to be a Jounin, I'm sure it retains some of that." Kabuto said, and the imprisoned Shinobi would have shaken with rage if his body could shake.

It? They spoke of him as if he were some object, but he was a person, a living human being, he deserved respect and he deserved freedom and if he could just figure out what they were doing to hold him still he would--

"All right, that's enough. recess is over, back to your rooms, children." Kabuto said with a lazy tone, his body turned towards Okatsu, "How are the numbers?"

"Seventeen dead prisoners, forty dead guards and five dead ninja . . . oh, and that priestess we sacrificed to the ringleader here." Okatsu said and One-six-eight did feel a bit of pride.

They'd meant for him to kill the priestess, but surely they didn't expect his escape attempt to butcher as many guards as it had. As his body turned itself around and as his legs began forcing him back to his cell he took a small measure of comfort in that until he heard what Kabuto said next.

"Excellent, much better than Lord Orochimaru and I projected," Kabuto said with a chuckle, "They do much better against living prey than they do against Shadow Clones."

"Yes, but we can't test them like this all the time, we'll run out of guards."

"Lord Orochimaru was prepared to sacrifice a hundred guards," Kabuto said, his voice starting to fade as One-six-eight neared his cell. "But I think we've gathered enough data, and their response to the compulsion Jutsu is clearly one hundred percent. I think they're ready for the field."

"Excellent," Okatsu said cheerfully, "Dress them up like Konoha ninja, set 'em on Kumogakure and fun times for all, yes?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Kabuto laughed, "Ever since Hijiri Hitomi attacked dear Shiroi all Lord Orochimaru can think of is Sasuke. These monstrosities are going to be used to track _him _down, if any of them survive that they can spearhead the cleansing of Lightning."

"Ah, of course." Okatsu laughed, and One-six-eight walked back into his cell against his will.

But now he had something new to contemplate.

Hijiri . . . Hitomi . . . those words--no that name . . .

That was familiar . . .

"Should we turn up the mist?" Okatsu's voice drifted to him, "Make them forget this whole event?"

"No, no point. We're sending them to the front, we'll want them to remember that we can control them with a word, and to remember any technique they may have developed in the brawl today . . . besides, why waste good chemicals on cannon fodder?" Kabuto said.

One-six-eight considered their words.

What was the mist?

It was a chemical . . . he figured that part out . . . and it made them forget?

So he was right, they had tried to escape before, and apparently each time it was stage managed . . .

They would regret not making him forget that little factoid.

He didn't know how they'd regret it but he'd find a way to make it happen.

Hitomi . . . that was the name they'd said and a name he needed to remember. He didn't know why yet, but if his poor memory was to be blamed on chemicals in the air if he could hold on to that name long enough he might be able to figure out more.

_It would be really nice, _he thought_ to remember my own name . . ._

**To Be Continued . . .**


	13. Leaving Lightning

**Chapter Twelve**

Orochimaru smirked at himself in the mirror, letting his façade melt away revealing the face of his host body; Mitarashi Anko.

_Hmm . . . how old are you now, my pet? Not the child you were when we first met and yet this body . . . still so youthful . . . I could do all kinds of things with this body of yours . . ._

He let the thought hang, though Anko was exiled to the darkest corner of his mind he suspected at least some part of her was aware of it.

Orochimaru had taken to taunting Kakashi with the face of his lover to see if Anko's conscious mind would try to rise up, it didn't. He had left enough of her that she could be recovered when he moved on to Sasuke-kun, but Anko's mind and his did not converse and without actively seeking out the thoughts that belonged to her Orochimaru would swear her mind had simply died or been merged with his on accident.

The Jutsu was parasitic in nature, Anko's body wasn't going to be his permanent home, even Sasuke-kun wasn't going to be his permanent home, now that he knew he could exist like this indefinitely he would continue jumping from body to body for eternity.

He was immortal.

He wanted to find a way to jump into an un-cursed body, and to make the process more rapid, easier, then perhaps if he were ever to be defeated he could just leap into the body of the one that bested him.

Not that he believed he'd be defeated any time soon. He was the most powerful ninja in the world, he just needed a powerful body to compliment his soul.

Sasuke would do for this generation, and for the next perhaps Kotaro, or even young Saizo, the son of Shiroi and Kurai.

Only time would tell.

He had the world under his control--well almost--now all that was left was to make that world perfect and continue his research, learn everything he could about Jutsu, about immortality.

* * *

Yuu watched the three women sitting around the camp fire.

They were all very different, not just in appearance but in mannerisms.

Tomoko for example looked like the sort of girl who would never pick a book up, but she was sitting in front of the fire going through page after page of some book one of the bandits had had on him.

Tomoko was . . . well, frankly she was the love of his life; he couldn't imagine a day without her. She was strong, beautiful, and she wasn't afraid of anything it seemed, whenever their team went into battle Tomoko was glad to lead the way and usually had a sarcastic remark or two to make light of the situation no matter how dire.

Chiwa was a new entity to the three person team Yuu belonged to, she and Tomoko seemed to have met at some point but Yuu didn't recognize her from the Chuunin exam where _he _had met Tomoko; he had no idea who Chiwa was.

She was covered in scrapes, bruises, and scars, her head was completely shorn and she looked like she could stare down a demon without flinching.

But she was proving to be extremely childish and even a bit of a coward, now that she had "friends" as she put it, she was far more willing to cringe and whine than she had been whilst playing the evil bandit leader.

Kimiko-sensei was sitting on a blanket she'd laid out because she was too dainty to allow herself to sit in the dirt. When it came to a fight the woman had few reservations about getting blood on her clothes but when she wasn't in the heat of battle she played at being some sort of dignified debutant, whilst secretly being a little underhanded and tricky, back when he'd been a Genin under her tutelage Kimiko-sensei had often insisted that it was the duty of the Genin to pay for their Jounin sensei's meals, and on one rather odd occasion, their rent.

But she was a good sensei; she'd cared a lot about Yuu's teammates Masaru and Kasumi . . .

Now Masa was dead and Kasumi . . .

Yuu would have to kill Kasumi himself when they met. It was nice that Tomoko-chan had been alleviated of the burden of thinking her brother had aided Orochimaru and Kabuto, but Yuu had to live with the _fact _that Kasumi was not just one of the Sound Five, she'd been the first to go running to Orochimaru. She'd done so initially as a way of getting revenge on Sound for causing Masaru's death so Yuu had helped her do it.

And somewhere along the line she changed sides, now every sin she committed in the name of Sound was on Yuu's conscience too because if he hadn't helped her infiltrate the organization she might never have been taken to become one of the Five.

He had to kill Kasumi.

He watched Tomoko . . . he knew she was frustrated with him more often than not. He tried to never act inappropriately with her, which was troublesome because she clearly wanted him to act inappropriately.

But as much as he loved her he couldn't do it, not knowing that it was his responsibility to kill one of the five most dangerous foes to the ninja world outside of the Shogun and Emperor themselves.

What if he and Tomoko started on a physical relationship, then he died? Wouldn't she be even more devastated because they'd gone from being just friends to being romantically intertwined?

Well they were already something of an item, but it wasn't strictly official, and Yuu had fought hard against his instinct and her flirtation to keep it that way.

Sometimes he felt guilty just looking at her, knowing he was intentionally refusing her something she wanted so much.

He thought of his sister and Takumi, they were so happy together.

But they were older, more experienced, and most of all they didn't have anyone they needed to kill, weren't even in the military anymore, at least not officially.

Yuu frowned as he watched Tomoko and tried not to let himself stare.

He wondered if he'd ever be able to settle down with her . . . she said she liked having adventures and writing about them, maybe she'd never want to settle down.

Maybe neither of them would get the chance . . . Yuu just didn't know.

They were both Jounin, but no doubt the Five were on a Jounin level too, along with however many ninja Orochimaru had secreted away into his ranks . . .

Would they be able to win the war?

Did they have the numbers to oppose the empire? Even though Kimiko-sensei said that the people in Otogakure were ready to rebel and that Tomoko's own brother was already leading a resistance could they really count on the support of a people who had been subjugated for so long?

Could the downtrodden people of what was once Konohagakure really be relied upon to do their share of the work or would they assume that it was all just a ninja matter to be solved by ninja?

Yuu closed his eyes.

So many concerns, so many fears. Like most everyone in the ninja world he was waiting for the war to start again so that one way or another they could be laid to rest.

He opened his eyes and caught Tomoko quickly averting her gaze. He sighed.

If they both survived and she was still willing he'd devote the remainder of his life to making it all up to her, all the frustration and irritation he caused her now.

If they both survived.

* * *

Yomiko clapped her hands once and said "Well I'm content. I think these plans look good, Kyoko-chan, thoughts?"

"They'll do, considering our limited resources." Kyoko said with a shrug.

"I sort of wonder though what the point of a tournament is, in the past it was to let customers see our ninja in action right?" Naomasa said, "Why should we have one if there are no customers anymore?"

"It's not just about customers," Iruka said, "It's about testing the Genin fully to be sure they're prepared, it was just a good opportunity for the customers to see our ninja at work. It was never just for them."

Yomiko suspected Nao felt uncomfortable being in charge of keeping the Genin from killing each other in the tournament style third exam, she decided it'd hurt nothing to tell him "Besides, with you there watching them nobody will get too hurt."

Nao didn't look remotely relieved though, and Yomiko shrugged, some people were just inconsolable, Naomasa was awfully stubborn.

But then so was she, she mused.

Kyoko leaned forward across the table and rested her head on it, "Shikamaru and Temari-sensei will want us to help each other anyway, so we'll be keeping our eyes open during the third exam Naomasa, there won't bee too much pressure on you."

"But don't think there isn't any," Yomiko said, not wanting Kyoko to belittle Naomasa's responsibility.

It was one thing to reassure him, it was another to coddle him, he was a Special Jounin now after all.

And she was pleased when Naomasa nodded, "Yomiko-chan's right, I can't get sloppy. Even with help I still need to be on top of my game, no distractions."

Yomiko smirked, this was the perfect time to suggest Naomasa avoid Hitomi-san and keep to working with his teammates, then she'd have him all to herself--after all Kyoko was on her side and would no doubt be happy to "wander off" if the need should arise.

She spotted Kyoko subtly shake her head, Yomiko fought back a scowl.

She'd already taken the older girl's advice and not challenged Hitomi to a fight, but she wasn't going to let Kyoko plot the course of her relationship with Naomasa, just now she'd been right in not being too soft on him and Kyoko had been wrong proving she was by no means a romantic genius, Kyoko didn't even have a boyfriend who did she think she was bossing around?

Assuming her head shake had even been a head shake--but then Yomiko knew it was, Kyoko didn't just do things she was a very deliberate person.

Yomiko hesitated, Kyoko wasn't a moron or anything, and while Yomiko didn't like not taking an opportunity when it presented itself she had to admit that her own irritation aside it was because Kyoko was such a deliberate person that she hadn't just cast aside her advice about Hitomi, Kyoko was observant and she didn't leap without looking . . .

But then over thinking this opportunity meant losing it, Yomiko said "You know Naomasa if you don't want distractions--"

"Yomiko . . ." Kyoko grumbled but the younger woman ignored her and continued.

"You really should sever your ties with Hijiri-san."

"Sever?" Naomasa raised an eyebrow.

"Don't talk to her, don't go near her, if you go to see your sisters give her the cold shoulder." Yomiko suggested.

"What have social problems got to do with your jobs?" Iruka asked, looking distressed at the seemingly off topic conversation breaking out.

"It's just Nao-kun can't do his job if he's drooling after that woman." Yomiko said, "He said himself he can't have distractions and she is a major distraction."

Kyoko groaned, but Naomasa shrugged, "You're probably right. These Chuunin exams are what's important, Hitomi and I have said everything there is to say . . ."

Yomiko felt positively smug, she smirked at Kyoko who gave her a dirty look.

_What's that about? _Yomiko wondered, but she was caught by surprise when Naomasa slumped over and rested his head on the table just like Kyoko.

"What does she want from me anyway? How'm I supposed to impress her?"

'Nice work' Kyoko mouthed and Yomiko slammed her fist on the table.

"Naomasa, we just discussed this! Forget her!" Yomiko shouted. "You said it yourself, you've said everything you can say, now let it go and focus on your job: the Chuunin exams! You're been granted a huge honor you know, it's not just something everybody gets to do and you have the third exam we're trusting you with a lot of responsibility!"

"I know . . ." Nao grumbled.

Iurka-sensei said "She's right, this is a pretty important event, it's the last Chuunin exam before the war starts up again and these kids' futures hang in the balance, if any of you three slip up it can mean someone's life, if you don't do your jobs properly it could mean someone who doesn't deserve it getting promoted or someone who is deserving not getting promoted and that too can lead to catastrophe later, you need to be focused."

"Yes master Iuka." Kyoko and Yomiko said together, Naomasa nodded but remained silent.

Iruka smiled soothingly, "Okay so if we're done discussing distractions I think you should talk to Konohamaru, I'm sure he has lots of ideas and advice for you guys."

"Yes sir," Naomasa said, "I think we should talk to our sensei too."

"Good, agreed," Yomiko said cheerfully. _Talk to anyone and everyone _except _Hitomi, _she thought.

* * *

Ichiteru smiled at her sister, "You'll be accompanying the army, won't you?"

"Naturally, they may need my guesses." Emiko said.

"You think so?" Ichiteru asked.

"I do. How badly they'll need me I'm not sure, but I'll do what I can. I think it's really important that those who can help do so, I think it's our duty as human beings."

Ichiteru nodded, "I think so too . . . say hello to our sisters if you see them."

"I guess I'll see Eri before it's over, I hadn't thought about Aneko and Minako. They're safe I think." Emiko said.

Ichiteru frowned, "You're saying Eri isn't? Oh what am I saying? Of course she isn't! Living in the capital city, engaged to a former ninja! But you're sure she'll be okay?"

"I guessed she would be alive. Being alive and being okay are two different things, sister. My guess is very strong that I'll see her again, but more than that I don't know . . . it's a little unnerving really."

Ichiteru looked into Emiko's eyes, "Fate didn't do you any favors giving you this ability, did it?"

Emiko shrugged, "I don't think fate had anything to do with it. We're not like a ninja bloodline, we don't inherit powers . . . rather we've all become intensely good at the things we love, your singing is haunting and soothing at the same time, so much so that people fall asleep not because of hypnotism or any such nonsense, but because of how comforting your voice is, at least I think so. Eri can climb practically anything, but that's her passion. Me . . . I liked knowing what would happen if I did this or that, tried to guess who'd win whenever the rest of you argued, somewhere along the line I just became very good at it. Everyone thinks I'm some prophetess but really I'm just lucky . . ."

Emiko smiled weakly, "I wonder . . . we sisters all have a special talent that some would say is extraordinary . . . what do you think of Naomasa?"

"You mean do I think he has talent? Of course, look at the boy, he's from merchant stock and never lifted a blade before entering their academy and still managed to become a spectacular ninja. Like you said, we aren't born with super powers, we just become really good at the things we love and Naomasa loves being a ninja."

Emiko smiled, "I think so too. His team, they're the best of their generation, not quite on the same level as those legendary Jounin of the Konoha Twelve of Suna Trio, but definitely head and shoulders above the remainder of their class. I guessed they'd be promoted very soon."

"I hope so," Ichiteru said, "I hope they make it. I tried to get Hijiri to keep an eye on Naomasa, but she seemed hesitant to agree."

"She's scared." Emiko said simply, "The battles are going to be intense; she can't be expected to look after him she'll have her own hide to worry about. Before Konoha fell she didn't fear battle, didn't know her own limits, I think she thought she was some sort of immortal warrior."

"And you think now she knows better?" Ichiteru guessed.

Emiko smiled gravely, "I don't even have to guess that."

Ichiteru shrugged, "The poor dear has a child to look after and it must hurt her how much the girl resembles her father."

"Oh?" Emiko seemed surprised, "You didn't meet Saeki-chan's father . . ."

"What? No, but she barely resembles Hitomi-chan . . ." Ichiteru said without really thinking about it. She'd always noticed but never gave it much thought before.

"Just a guess . . . I'd say she resembles her mother pretty strongly, actually." Emiko said, but there was a certain guarded tone to her voice.

Ichiteru considered. Saeki and Hitomi had similarities; they had the same smile though Hitomi very rarely smiled, and their skin color was the same pale tone, their raven hair matched . . .

"I guess you're right, maybe I'm just trying to imagine what this Kaoru looked like." Ichiteru said then hesitated, considering that Emiko had called it a guess . . . why would she say that?

She didn't have to guess when she could just look with her own two eyes and see Saeki and Hitomi together . . . or was she just trying to imply that she was absolutely correct?

Ichiteru decided to let it go, she hadn't seen Emiko-chan in years, the younger woman was bound to have picked up some odd habits.

Emiko hesitated too then said "I think Hitomi will look after Naomasa for the first battle."

"Only the first?"

"They're not stationed in the same corridor." Emiko said calmly, "They won't be fighting the war together. She's going to be in the second corridor, with Uchiha Sasuke and the Mist ninja, Naomasa-kun is going to be in the third corridor with Shikamaru and the rest of the Konoha survivors."

"So the ninja aren't attacking as a unified force?"

"No. There will be separate invasion corridors to prevent the attack from being completely stopped or stalled, more than that I can't say, it's classified until after the Chuunin exams."

Ichiteru sighed, "Well . . . these Chuunin exams should be interesting at least. Will they be held in Mist, or here?" She asked, wondering if she might have an opportunity to herself see her mother and father as well as get them to see Emiko and Naomasa before the war broke out and the two marched with the armies.

"It's complicated . . . I know what you're thinking and it won't happen, mother and father won't know the war's on again until the whole world knows it."

"When will that be?" Ichiteru asked.

"I _guess_ just a few days sooner than the Emperor would like, I _hope _it's enough to make the difference we need it to."

* * *

Hinata zipped her navy blue jumpsuit up and looked at herself in the mirror.

It'd been years since she put the uniform on; even when she'd been permitted to wear it publicly she hadn't been one for the full uniform.

She pulled her green flak jacket on and with a deep breath reached for the forehead protector she'd been forced to discard for four years.

She tied it around her head; the metal plate baring the symbol of Konohagakure was polished and beautiful.

It was a private affair, no one was with the head of the Hyuga clan as she did this, but still it felt like a powerful moment in her life, maybe even in history.

She gathered her equipment pouches, her supplies, her shuriken holsters and all of her weapons.

She reached for the brown traveling cloak and threw it over her shoulders, letting it conceal her uniform and her weapons.

She pulled the hood over her head, concealing her symbol.

Much like free ninja in general, who had been concealed for years.

But they were still there, beneath the surface.

She stepped out of her room, she saw several others dressed in cloaks as well.

Her clan, or some of it.

Tenten appeared from her own room down the hall from Hinata's, dressed like Hinata in the brown cloak.

They all wore their Konoha uniforms and flak jackets beneath their cloaks, but to any casual observer they'd appear to be a band of travelers.

She gathered all of her clan and the Konoha ninja in Kumogakure, and she led them to the gates.

The Samurai and soldiers of Lightning were in force preparing for their movements as well, many of those Samurai were truly Shinobi, dressed in Samurai armor Hinata wondered if they too would don their proper Shinobi attire before the battle started.

One Samurai stood by the gates of the city along with his wife.

Hattori Tetsuo, a ninja in reality, and the husband of Hinata's sister.

Hanabi said "Good luck sister, cousins."

Hinata smiled, "We'll see you in Konohagakure."

"When you see him," Tetsuo said, "tell your Hokage that we'll be doing our best."

"I will." Hinata nodded.

The clan left the gates of Kumogakure and began to move quickly.

They had their objective in mind, Hinata's main concern was not having been able to speak personally to Tomoko before they left, but the girl was still in the field returning with her team and when the messenger bird from Toa arrived saying that the atmosphere in the capital was indeed tense and ripe for rebellion, the Daimyo had been determined to move at once.

He was determined to topple Sound and claim Fire ostensibly for his wife but obviously his true intent was to rule over it himself.

If Lady Sachiko had been any closer to the late Daimyo of Wind than simply being his niece, Hinata was sure Taiko would have found a way to claim her as a second wife and lay claim to the Land of Wind too, how disappointed he must have been when she married Gaara's brother Kankuro.

Kankuro who had become the Raikage's left hand--for Hanabi's husband, Tetsuo was his right--and the head of the Hishu.

Hinata swallowed a lump in her throat thinking of the Raikage. Such a terrible, conniving person, nothing like the proud and excitable but well meaning Raikage who had ruled Hidden Cloud in her youth, the man who risked war just to help his brother, this Raikage didn't seem to see anyone as any more than a tool to further his own designs and was much more like the traitor Danzo, dark, secretive and full of terrible plans.

And it worried Hinata that her sister was married to the man who was now more or less apprenticed to the vile old ninja, it was a relief to be leaving Kumogakure at last.

She wondered briefly if she'd see Naruto-kun soon . . . she missed him so much.

As she thought of Naruto she saw a small toad leap across the road, and she smiled.

Maybe it was an omen, a sign that soon she and the toad summoning Hokage would finally be reunited.

She swore to herself that she wouldn't faint, and led her clan towards the Land of Waves.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **I just want to say it's neat seeing people are already guessing 168's identity, I wanted readers to be able to have a sense of who he was and had been before it was revealed so I'm glad people are trying to figure it out, it really makes me look forward to the reveal.


	14. Thoughts of the Cursed

**Chapter Thirteen**

Sasuke lay on his back staring at the ceiling of his room.

It was luxurious, all things considered, but not quite his fare.

It was lonely too, he was so used to having the rest of his band around, listening to the ninja chatter around the camp fire, usually punctuated by Hayato and Hitomi arguing, listening to the sounds of them sleeping even, he'd become so used to having a large group with him.

It wasn't to say he didn't prefer to be alone, because he was sure he still did, but he was so unused to it now that he was having trouble falling asleep.

Which invited thoughts . . .

Thoughts of how luxurious the quarters of the Mizukage must be. Thoughts of just how easily he could have those quarters himself.

And with himself as Mizukage there'd be no threat of Suigetsu betraying the alliance and siding with Sound because he'd be neutralized, it'd be Sasuke's call.

He sighed.

_If I have to _he told himself, but he wasn't convinced.

Somehow though he thought, "If I have to" it was as if simultaneously he though "as soon as I get the chance"

He expelled the thought, that wasn't who he was; it absolutely wasn't who he was . . .

He wouldn't betray a friend, and Suigetsu was a friend. He wouldn't stab him in the back just to seize a meaningless title . . .

It didn't matter if he was Hokage, Mizukage, Tsuchikage or Kamikage, he was the last Uchiha--for now anyway--there was renown enough in that.

_But not power . . ._ he thought.

He scowled to himself, he'd spent four years wandering the world looking for rogue Shinobi, sending them to the island, or keeping them in his elite corps.

He'd been all but a Kage then, he'd been in command of a large number of ninja had decided who went who stayed, who had what duties, he was ready for command of a village . . .

But not _this _village.

He sat up in bed and massaged his forehead.

He was giving himself a headache. He got out of bed and pulled his shoes on; he stepped out the door and staggered back.

"Oh . . . hi Sasuke-kun." Karin said.

He stared at her; she'd just been standing right outside his door.

"I was just passing by . . ." She said in a tone that suggested even she knew she wasn't fooling anyone. She was dressed in a mist-gray robe and Sasuke didn't need his Sharingan to tell him that she wasn't wearing much if anything beneath it.

She adjusted her glasses and said, "Well, interested in some company for the night?"

Sasuke frowned at her, "No." He said flatly.

"Oh . . . uh . . . are you sure?" She asked.

"Completely." Sasuke said, "I was just going to go for a walk to clear my head."

"Ah. Well then I will walk in the same direction taking the appropriate turns." Karin decided.

"In other words you're coming with me." Sasuke said.

"But without needing your permission to come along." The woman said with a smirk.

Sasuke smiled in spite of himself, "Fine. Would you like to put some clothes on first?"

"I'm dressed under this." Karin said evasively.

"Show me." Sasuke said, unconvinced.

"I would have if you had agreed to my company tonight." Karin said with a sly smile, and the two began to walk.

Sasuke would have been content to walk in silence, but Karin probed him with questions.

"Clearing your head huh?" She asked, and Sasuke kept walking.

"What's clouding it?" Karin asked.

Sasuke shrugged and otherwise kept walking.

"Are you worried about the war?" Karin asked as Sasuke found himself in the chamber where Suigetsu had entertained them.

What had guided him there?

"Oh Suigetsu won't be in, he's probably asleep. Do you think we've got the numbers we need?" Karin asked.

Sasuke folded his arms and turned to face her.

"You're awfully chatty." He said by way of remonstrating her, but she didn't catch on or she ignored it.

"Do you think the population will support us? It's going to be guerilla warfare isn't it? We'd need the population's support." Karin said.

"You weren't this talkative when we were kids." Sasuke observed.

"I mean we'll have to keep the men under control, make sure that if Orochimaru decides to burn crops the common folk don't think it's us, that's what he'll do you know, to destabilize us if we do get a foothold." Karin said.

"You're rambling now," Sasuke said.

"He'll probably burn villages too if we make it too far into his territory. Do you really think this Shikamaru is capable of planning the strategy?"

"I told you I wanted to walk to clear my head, not clutter it!" Sasuke snapped, not willing to talk about what he thought about Shikamaru's ability.

Shikamaru had his chance to go down in legend by _properly _defending Konohagakure in the first place; his plans had failed to keep the enemy from taking the city over.

Karin gave him a very bold look; she adjusted her glasses again and said simply, "You know what would shut me up if you really wanted to."

She let the thought sit with him for a moment, then spoke again.

"I'll be taking the role of Mist's Chief Strategist you know, that means I'll be about on the same playing field as Nara Shikamaru, I'll get to look over his strategies for us and give him some for his men too."

"He won't even consider them." Sasuke scowled.

"You think I'm not equal to his strategies?" Karin scoffed, "I'll have you know I'm quite a fine strategist. If the former Mizukage had had my services in the last war she'd still be alive."

"It doesn't matter what I think of your strategies, Shikamaru thinks he's some sort of god," Sasuke scowled, then he blinked and glared at Karin, "Wait, what did you say about the last Mizukage?"

"You know the old gal who was in charge before Suigetsu got the job. If she'd had me working for her the Daimyo's army wouldn't have been chased into the ocean and she would still be alive, that's all I'm saying." Karin said.

Sasuke stared at Karin.

There was something about her tone . . . "Karin, were you involved in what happened to the Mizukage?"

"What do you mean? Nothing's happened to Suigetsu . . . unless he took that girl to his room with him, then I don't care to know what's happening to him." Karin said lazily.

"You know what I mean." Sasuke said.

"I know I'm tired . . . and I'm getting cold. If you won't have my company tonight I'm going to bed, Sasuke-kun." Karin said with shrug and yet another adjustment of her glasses.

Why didn't she just buy a better pair of glasses with her Chief Strategist paycheck? Not that that was as relevant as the possibility that she might know something about the Mizukage.

Sasuke gave her a hard stare, "Tell me."

"I'll tell you 'goodnight' if we're not going to do anything fun." Karin said breezily, and folded her arms, "Well?"

Sasuke juggled various thoughts in his head.

Was this just a strategy of hers? Implying that she might know something about the former Mizukage's fate and refusing to tell him?

He shook his head, and tried a strategy of his own, "I thought I could trust you."

"You can. But I won't let my fingers and toes freeze off standing in front of Suigetsu's office. Goodnight."

Sasuke watched her back as she walked away.

It was tempting to take her into his bed just for one night just to learn what she knew . . .

After so many years she was still beautiful, an image of physical perfection . . . it wouldn't be _that _unpleasant . . .

But it wasn't what he wanted.

The information was . . . the act he'd have to commit to get it wasn't.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and shook his head.

Thoughts of betraying Suigetsu, thoughts that Karin might have known something about the last Mizukage's death . . .

Or . . .

Suigetsu might have already had Karin's services in the last war, she said the Mizukage hadn't had her services but she hadn't said that Mist hadn't, or that Sound _had_.

He folded his arms and paced back and forth.

If Suigetsu had used Karin or worked with her to kill his predecessor . . .

It meant he didn't deserve to be Mizukage anyway . . . and Sasuke would be doing the patriotic thing for his new country by removing Suigetsu from power before the invasion . . .

Or during the invasion . . .

But it also meant that Karin might not be on his side as he'd assumed she would be.

He'd have to work on her loyalty, if he had Karin and Juugo Suigetsu might be willing to just give up the position.

Nobody had to die . . .

If Suigetsu and Karin had contributed to the last Mizukage's death that is.

If he was just making assumptions then he was right back to being an unworthy friend plotting the downfall of his former comrade, a man who'd risked his own safety to lead his ninja ahead of the main army to save Konoha, even if it'd been too late.

Sasuke returned to his room.

What would Hitomi say? She'd been his second in command . . . he hadn't really thought about it but he'd grown quite used to hearing her and Hayato argue about his every decision, it helped him decide what to do more often than not.

What would they say?

He couldn't have them to offer advice now; he had to make this decision himself.

He closed his eyes, seeking sleep.

If he did nothing then nothing would change for him. Maybe they'd win the war, maybe they'd lose.

If he acted on his ambition it could ruin everything . . . but it could save everything too . . .

If he waited too long the chance might pass.

_I'll keep the roads open, _he decided.

He'd earn Karin and Juugo's loyalty back from Suigetsu and he'd prepare himself for a possible confrontation, but he would not go on the offensive.

He'd wait.

He'd be patient.

And . . . only if necessary . . . if there was no other way . . . he'd be Mizukage.

The mere thought made his mouth water . . .

No . . . no the smell of breakfast made his mouth water.

Had he fallen asleep? How long had he slept? Had he slept at all?

He sat up in bed, this time noticing the sunlight pouring in through his window.

He got out of bed and went to the mess hall, where Suigetsu, Karin and about six other Jounin were eating breakfast.

Sasuke wasn't sure at all whether he'd slept or not. One thing he was sure of when he saw Karin: he hadn't dreamed what she said.

But had it meant what he thought? Or was she trying to prove she could be a tricky strategist?

He watched her warily; she just blushed like a shy teenage girl and averted her gaze, fixing her glasses again.

Suigetsu noticed and started teasing her; Sasuke considered the two were sort of like a brother and sister, Karin might not be that willing to turn on Suigetsu after all . . . she might even have helped him. He'd hinted that he'd found another member of Team Hawk back when he'd first become Mizukage after all . . . had it been Karin?

Things were different now. They weren't a bunch of kids out to prove they were tough and take on the world. They were adults; they had gone from being child soldiers to young generals leading an army into hell.

They couldn't afford to be divided . . . Sasuke knew that.

But the thoughts of being the one sitting at the head of the table as Mizukage of Mist village's ninja . . .

Those weren't leaving Sasuke's mind.

* * *

Kyoko stared into the mirror.

It was becoming obvious again . . . she hated it so much, if Naomasa or Yomiko ever found out . . .

If _anyone _ever found out . . .

"Kyoko-chan, are you coming or not?" Yomiko shouted.

The young woman let out an exasperated, slightly panicked sigh.

She wrapped her forehead protector around her neck and pulled the collar of her refurbished flak jacket up.

She eyed herself in the mirror.

She always felt sick when it started showing again.

She noticed tears in her eyes, and took a few deep breaths.

She wouldn't give any sign of her distress, she'd carry on like she always did and nobody would be the wiser.

She'd hidden it for four years; today was just another day . . . she smiled at herself in the mirror.

It was too artificial. She forced a more natural looking smile.

Damn it but she was a good actress. She could fool anyone into believing there was nothing wrong with her, she could make her closest friends think she was just like them, healthy, happy . . .

The one person she couldn't convince of her own well-being was herself. At first she'd worried she'd die, it'd certainly felt like she'd die. She'd never had a serious threat from it; it'd never taken control or activated itself. She'd kept it secret these four years . . .

But she'd worried about it acting up during battle, and here it was flaring up when they were so close to going to war . . .

If they knew . . . then she really would die.

She shut her eyes and focused, willing it to just disappear.

Any maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.

Yomiko pounded on her door, Kyoko took a deep steadying breath.

Another day of acting.

She smiled when she saw Naomasa and Kyoko, her teammates, her friends.

"I'm sorry," She said, "I know we had a morning patrol, I just . . . I slept in, I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Naomasa said lightly.

Kyoko smiled a more genuine smile at him and Yomiko . . . her friends.

If it wasn't invisible again by the end of the Chuunin exams . . .

Kyoko closed her eyes.

"Not bothered are you?" Yomiko asked.

Had her façade slipped? Had she let her mask drop for a moment?

"I'm fine, stop asking." Naomasa grumbled.

Kyoko smiled, "Why, is something the matter?"

"He's just weirded out because his nephew said I'm hot." Yomiko said slyly.

Kyoko smirked, she elbowed Naomasa suggestively, "Jealous, huh?"

"What? No way!" Nao scoffed.

Kyoko smirked, "So jealous."

Yomiko blushed; Nao said, "Look, Tai just hasn't had a chance to get to know her. I mean sure, Yomiko's not that bad looking--"

"Not that bad looking?" Yomiko snapped.

"But when it comes to personality, man!" Naomasa groaned, Yomiko hit his shoulder and Kyoko found herself doing the same.

Nevertheless, the three of them laughed, they were friends.

Her trusted friends.

Who would be duty bound to kill her if they knew about the cursed mark on her neck.

But they wouldn't kill her would they? They'd hide it, try to keep her from being imprisoned or executed . . .

They were true friends and she hated lying to them.

But if she were going to save Kotaro, she needed to keep the seal a secret.

She couldn't afford not to be on the front lines.

So she lied to her friends.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	15. Three Armies

**Chapter Fourteen**

Juukei Toshiie, the Tsuchikage by right of conquest.

He had openly "challenged" and killed the former Tsuchikage, and all those who raised objection to the action.

He was loyal to Orochimaru as well, the man who had raised him up from the dead to someday take revenge against his nemesis, Nara Shikamaru of what was once the Village Hidden in Leaves.

He was entirely loyal to Orochimaru, some whispered that the Emperor had done something to his mind and Toshiie didn't doubt it, he just didn't see why it should matter.

He was alive, he was Tsuchikage; his power was second only to the Emperor himself.

His ninja force was made up of roughly six hundred Shinobi, though only twenty on paper he was permitted the rest by kind permission of Orochimaru, Toshiie's five hundred were, after all, servants of Sound and the Emperor's interests, and everyone knew the "twenty ninja per daimyo" rule existed in word only.

It was there so that when the time came the Emperor would have valid reason to attack Lightning and Water, but most certainly never Earth.

Because he already owned Earth, whatever the Daimyo might think Toshiie, the Tsuchikage was entirely Orochimaru's man, one hundred percent.

The Sound liaison, Minoru Hikaru, was unnecessary insurance that Toshiie remained loyal, but far from being insulted by his presence he was always eager to show just how trustworthy and loyal he was.

Therefore, when Hikaru presented the scroll directly from the Kamikage himself with the emperor and Shogun's seals requesting one thousand more civilians for testing and the mobilizing of whatever ninja force Toshiie deemed necessary to repel a possible incursion by the Land of Lightning Toshiie didn't hesitate.

He drafted up the orders and gave them to his aides to draw in "missing persons" from the surrounding area ensuring that the people either came willingly or were not related to anyone in the ninja corps or anyone of influence in the army. They had seventy-two hours to bring in as many as they could and whatever they failed to supply would be made up for courtesy of the prison system.

Toshiie wouldn't go straight to the prison system because many of those people were malnourished and therefore unfit for testing, better to take civilians, he could usually get a hundred or so without causing a stir and this always received him a letter of personal thanks from the Shogun who enjoyed the variety in his test subjects.

The other order he drafted was the mobilization of sixty percent of his ninja force to make their way to the border to crush any incursion.

He wished he could go himself as well.

He considered for a moment, and then called an old comrade to his side.

Gamo Katashi was a quiet Jounin and though Toshiie had personally executed the man's younger sister for standing with the slain Tsuchikage instead of supporting his ascension Gamo was enough of a self-serving careerist that he had never made any move to gain revenge.

Not that he could be blamed; his sister had been an irritating tramp. Toshiie felt the tiniest twinges of pleasure remembering how easily he'd killed her.

"Gamo," The Tsuchikage said levelly, "I want you to inform Iwao that he will be the head ninja in this assault, order him to punish the Lightning country if they _do _launch an attack."

"How should he punish them?" Gamo asked quietly.

"Burn their villages, steal their young women to be returned once the men of the army are done with them, that will make the populace less likely to support their Daimyo if he survives to cause further trouble." Hikaru answered, and Toshiie smirked and nodded.

"You are certain the emperor would warrant an act even more aggressive than those committed during the last war? Wouldn't it be more prudent to instead burn the crops and leave the civilians unharmed? If they are loyal worshipers of the Five Serpents an act of that sort could easily cause them to turn away and become even more aggressive in the future."

"Do not disagree with me," Toshiie said harshly.

"I wouldn't dare, Tsuchikage-sama, I was merely stating that Minoru-san's suggestion might be more aggressive than we are interested in being, besides which last I checked the Empire had laws against soldiers who abused the chastity of women."

"Women who are citizens of the Empire, if Lightning revolts they're no longer part of the Empire and this action will drive that fact home to the civilians who will want to force their Daimyo to make amends if he survives."

"Or be more determined to support him for opposing us in the first place." Katashi dared to utter.

Toshiie laughed, "Gamo this matter is decided. Perhaps the men in the Emperor's army will treat the ladies kindly and return them unspoiled, be optimistic."

"It is not just the women but the burning of the towns in general--" Katashi had the gall to continue speaking.

But Toshiie cut him off, his laughter ended abruptly and he stood up. He drew his massive chakra sword, but spoke very softly, "I said the matter is decided, Captain Gamo . . . carry out my order."

Gamo Katashi nodded. He bowed and whispered "My apologies, Tsuchikage-sama, Minoru-san."

Minoru smirked and nodded graciously and Toshiie returned to sitting on the stone throne of the Tsuchikage.

Katashi disappeared in a puff of smoke and Minoru said, "Are you sure you can rely on his loyalty?"

"Where would he turn if he meant to oppose me?" Toshiie laughed, "He's a self serving coward, skilled enough in a fight to deserve his Jounin status but far too aware of his own mortality to reach any higher. That is why I do not trust him with command of the force."

"Ah, I thought it was because Iwao was your nephew. After all appointing a youth to lead your ninja corps in the field will cause some dissent."

"He's a Jounin isn't he? Even though Iwao is young he is as vicious a warrior as any in this village and his loyalty to the Empire is as unshakable as my own."

"And Gamo's is not?" Hikaru asked.

"Gamo is loyal to Iwagakure first and foremost by his own admission, so he is loyal to me as Tsuchikage and by extension he is loyal to the Emperor." Toshiie said, "I do not doubt he is loyal to the Empire as well, but I believe if he had to he would place Iwagakure's interests before those of our Lord Emperor."

"Understood." Hikaru said evenly, "We can't have that kind of behavior, after all the Empire _is _Iwagakure."

"Yes." Toshiie nodded, "And that will be made clear to the Daimyo of Lightning when five hundred ninja descend on his piss poor army. I doubt there will be much left for the Emperor's forces to deal with."

"Let's hope not since the Emperor's forces won't be engaging."

"They won't?" Toshiie raised an eyebrow.

"The Emperor has the utmost faith in you, Tsuchikage-sama," Hikaru said, "Earth Samurai and Stone ninja will stop the Lightning and Cloud forces should they come with aggression in their hearts, the Sound army and ninja will be preparing for the possibility of an opportunistic attack from Water and Mist."

Toshiie smiled, "Ah I see. I am honored that the Daimyo values our forces so greatly. May I ask how many soldiers the Daimyo has consented to send?"

"Practically all of them," Hikaru said with a smirk, "He is eager to face who he calls "the pup Daimyo" personally, with the exception of a couple veteran legions left to defend the capital the entire country will be protected by nothing but militia if the main army fails."

"Then I will be sure it does not fail." Toshiie said, he barked an order and another attendant appeared, "Bring my nephew to me; I would speak personally to Iwao."

* * *

Ryu leaned against the wall of Daisuke's smithy and watched the young blacksmith give orders to his clansmen.

They were working like maniacs to build the armor and weapons that the Emperor had requisitioned and Ryu knew who would be wearing the equipment.

Daisuke had taken on the task of personally forging the new forehead protectors engraved with the symbol of the Village Hidden in Sound.

Daisuke had said that he didn't trust anyone else to get it right, but Ryu was pretty sure once Daisuke got around to doing the work all he'd really do was count how many he had to make, no doubt believing that it represented the number of graduating Genin in the hidden academy.

Even Ryu didn't know where Orochimaru's academy was. If it was in the ever-expanding labyrinth beneath Konoha Ryu had never seen any signs of it, and it certainly wasn't built over the old Konoha academy since that had been replaced by a temple for the training of serpent shrine maidens.

At first Ryu thought that the maiden academy was just a front, after all how much learning was required to say prayers to the Five? Kasumi however had told him that the maidens being educated were trained more or less on the arts of properly spying on whatever country they were sent to, while they would learn none of the combat and survival skills of the ninja they would be carrying on at least a bit of ninja tradition in that way.

But they weren't the Genin squads that Sound was secretly training.

Ryu knew that Genin were being trained, albeit not on the same scale that Stone and likely the other villages were training them.

He suspected they might be trained in Sound's old base; a place that Kasumi had said was accessible only to those who were allowed in due to the layers upon layers of Genjutsu heaped on the place.

He waited patiently for Daisuke to notice him, when the young smith did he approached him, "What is it?" He asked.

Ryu knew he had to be careful, he never knew who would be listening in. The loyalty of many of Daisuke's clansmen was questionable at best. "I'm heading out at sunset."

"Back to Waves?" Daisuke asked.

"Where the Empire needs me," Ryu said, "I just wanted to give you this; it's a letter for Yukio should anything happen to me."

Daisuke nodded, "Of course . . . would I be breaking any laws asking what danger there is of anything happening to you?"

Ryu laughed, "Not at all, you're a loyal servant of the Emperor after all. But surely you already know what's happening, your clan is forging like mad after all."

Daisuke nodded, Ryu had basically just told him that what he suspected was true, that Sound intended to send its ninja out as well as its armies.

And that it was going to be dangerous.

Ryu had joined Sound primarily to watch out for Yukio, to keep him sane and watch his back. Yukio had gotten to the point where he didn't think he needed any help with staying sane or watching his own back and it was probably true, but Ryu still cared.

He had another letter too, if they encountered the enemy . . . well there were some things he wanted made known if the worst should happen. If Temari-sensei were with the enemy she needed to know about Yukio in case she didn't yet.

So Ryu also had a letter for the enemy that they'd be able to take off his dead body if he fell.

But only if he fell.

Daisuke hesitated, then went over to a large stone box and pulled something out.

He tossed it to Yukio, it was a kunai holster.

"That used to be mine," Daisuke said, "those Kunai are from my family's special recipe, they're stronger than average and lighter . . . it's not much but, well Eri and I consider you a friend . . . take care of yourself out there."

"It must feel odd giving me weapons to use against your former comrades." Ryu said.

"No more odd than I'm sure using them against yours must feel." Daisuke said in a slightly guarded tone.

Ryu smiled, "Good luck, my friend."

"That's my line to you; you're the one going off to . . . do the Emperor's holy work." Daisuke said.

"We both know what I'm doing isn't half as dangerous as what you are." Ryu said, accepting the kunai holster with a bow and leaving the smithy, his message delivered and his request accepted.

He glanced at the palace.

Yukio was in there, as much a prisoner as any of those in the labyrinth. He wasn't subjected to tests as far as Ryu knew but the most successful tests were usually applied to the Five . . .

But it had been Yukio's choice. At the slightest hint that he regretted it Ryu would have fought Orochimaru himself to rescue his friend but it had never come to that.

Part of him had kept hoping it would, but it hadn't Yukio never showed the slightest sign of remorse for joining Sound, far from it he exalted in the power he now possessed.

He was . . . content. So Ryu was happy for him, and would continue to help him as best he could.

He watched the sun threaten to leave the sky over Otogakure and headed for the gates.

He'd wait for the rest of his squad, he was eager to leave the capital.

* * *

Tenten sat next to Hinata near the campfire.

The ninja had set up five small campfires, four of which were being watched by a pair of Jounin each to be sure nobody was following them, and gathered around one was the entire clan.

And Tenten of course.

"You miss Neji, don't you?" Hinata's soft voice asked once Tenten had sat down.

Tenten smiled wryly, "Of course I do. But I miss Lee too, and Gai-sensei, and all the people we've lost."

"They're not lost!" Hinata said, sounding surprised, "they're just not with us now, we'll all be together again soon."

"I didn't mean to imply that they were lost," Tenten said softly, supposing that Hinata's distress came from worries about Naruto, "just that I miss the fallen too."

"So do I," Hinata said, "and we have a responsibility to honor their memory by seeing that the cause they fought for prevails."

"That's right . . ." Tenten said, regarding Hinata with curiosity.

Just how much did Hinata love Naruto? Did she love Naruto?

Of course she did . . . but how did she live?

Tenten could barely think of anything but Neji and how much she wanted to charge back into battle by his side, how did Hinata tackle day after day not even knowing where Naruto was? Tenten _knew _where Neji was--or rather where he would be if he was alive--and it gave her no comfort, how could Hinata calmly lead her entire clan, didn't she feel the same way?

Or was she just better able to hide it and carry on? Maybe four years of practice, one of them unnecessary, had made her an expert but then Tenten didn't recall Hinata ever seeming as morose as she felt.

It caused her to feel a bit more respect for the younger woman.

The two women, both legends of Konoha, sat in silence, the Hyuga clan itself a legend of Konoha was silent as well.

Everyone was waiting for his or her chance to charge into battle again, she realized. There was an old saying; you could take a warrior out of the war but you couldn't take the war out of a warrior.

Tenten supposed it was true. She wondered how they'd all manage when the war was over . . . would they look for someone else to go to war with? Would they go to war with each other? Would they be able to function in peace?

The question alone scared her a bit; she didn't bother thinking on the answer.

If anything happened to Neji she knew what the answer would be for her. She'd be finished; she wouldn't be able to fight anymore. She'd fall apart completely.

How did Hinata stay so strong not knowing where Naruto was? Not knowing if he was safe? How could she still fight? If Naruto meant as much to Hinata as Neji did to Tenten then he was surely her reason for living so why didn't' she act depressed so Tenten wouldn't have to feel so ashamed of her own fears?

It caused her to lose a bit of respect for herself.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	16. Discussing Sasuke

**Chapter Fifteen**

"You know, you're a really grumpy person." Kasumi said.

"I don't think I am." Kurai said, waving his hand to indicate that the Hattori girl should take herself somewhere else.

"Well I think you are. Even your girlfriend says so."

"Shiroi is my _wife_," Kurai said calmly, just to prove he wasn't grumpy.

"Whatever she is to you she agrees that you're a grumpy, grumpy person. I think you need to unwind." Kasumi said, "We should go hunting together!"

Hunting was what Kasumi and Yukio called listening in on shrine requests and punishing the wicked, something Kasumi adored doing.

But while Kasumi dealt out "justice" left and right, Yukio seemed very reluctant to act, rather it seemed he just liked listening to people's problems.

Kurai wasn't sure which was more sick, punishing people based on what their enemies told you, or listening to people's problems with little interest in actually helping.

Kurai just said "Why would I want to go hunting with you?"

"Because it's a chance to do some righteous deeds of course, and people go to my shrines more often than yours so I'm sure I have better requests."

People went to Kasumi's shrines more often because she acted on so many requests, Kurai only filled out the one per day that Lord Orochimaru demanded they all perform.

Shiroi on the other hand was as hungry for "justice" as Kasumi, and when she wasn't tending to Saizo or hunting down her former clansmen she was usually listening in to her worshipers.

Kurai sometimes wondered, did this make them real gods?

They had worshipers, they listened to them, they performed what some might consider miracles for them. They never asked for reward--the shrines might but Kurai didn't know for sure--they never showed their faces or anything like that.

They weren't immortal, but even that might change if they could learn from Lord Orochimaru how it was done.

_Odd really, _Kurai thought to himself, _thinking of attaining godhood . . . and realizing I wouldn't want it if I had it . . ._

All he wanted was a calm, peaceful life with Shiroi and their son, nothing else mattered.

Wasn't that what they had serving Orochimaru; Peace and the chance to be together? All they had to do was pretend to be snake gods . . .

Was it really such a steep price to pay? _They _could be happy at least . . .

"Well?" Kasumi insisted, "Are you coming?"

Kurai wasn't sure why he did what he did next, maybe something deep down inside of him just wanted it.

But he laughed.

He laughed loud and freely, he stood up, looked at Kasumi and, still laughing, left the room and headed for his own quarters.

The laughter somehow cleared his head, made things clearer.

All that mattered in the world was being with his wife and son, and in order to achieve that he had to serve Orochimaru. When it came to the happiness of others, well that was what the serpent shrines were for, it was Orochimaru's way of letting them make the world a better place, his way of showing them what a good person and a kind overlord he was.

And Kurai had neglected his duty, that was why things were so bad.

And it was funny.

He didn't know why it was funny, but it was.

Or maybe it wasn't and he was just laughing for some other strange reason.

Things like that tended to happen in the palace, he'd learned long ago not to fear such events.

He was still alive after all . . . and probably still sane.

* * *

Hitomi saw the three Shinobi rushing towards two others from the second team.

It was a trap laid by Kurita's team, but she'd use it as an opportunity to strike out at both teams.

She whistled the signal, if the men from the other two teams heard it they would probably recognize it and it would cause confusion.

She leapt from her tree and landed between the advancing ninja and the two hidden in ambuscade.

Her team descended on both groups, too shocked to see her Kurita and Yodama's squads hesitated, and they were knocked out of the game.

"Commander," Kurita said, "You didn't tell us you were going to be here tonight."

"Much like the enemy," Hitomi said, "who will often fail to mention their movements for your benefit."

The Chuunin nodded, he understood.

They weren't Genin, these were lessons they already knew. She was just making sure they were on their toes. They were the men Sasuke had deemed good enough to keep with him instead of sending them to Lightning or Mist.

Sasuke had tried to send some ninja to the island, but Hitomi hadn't seen any of them, which was a shame it would have been good to know they'd made it.

But with everyone preparing for the attack it might just be that she hadn't run into them, there were thousands of people in this village after all.

"Well, I can't keep you out in these woods all night, you won't be able to beat up a group of five year olds, let alone slaughter armies of enemy samurai if you don't get some sleep," She told them, "You're dismissed."

They followed her orders and she strode through the woods for a bit, thinking to herself.

She did a lot of thinking and not a lot of deciding lately, tonight seemed no different.

Then from the corner of her eye she spotted someone approaching her. Whether by accident or design they walked right out of her field of vision before she could really identify them, but she didn't have to think too hard on who it might be.

_Naomasa . . . what's your tactic now? _She wondered and considered just running back to town and avoiding him.

In the darkened woods who knew what he might do, who knew what _she _might do . . .

But she decided it wouldn't do to act like some frightened prey animal, so she stood her ground and waited patiently. She leaned against a tree and when she heard audible footsteps--which was ninja for "I'm approaching, please don't kill me"--nearing she said, "Okay, enough hiding, come on out before I . . . oh," she said, seeing Nara Shikamaru walk into her field of vision, "I was expecting someone else."

"You were expecting someone at all?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you were a sensor."

"I'm not." Hitomi said, "I saw someone--I mean I saw you, but I didn't recognize you at first."

"Hmm. Guess I got sloppy." Shikamaru said.

"No sir, I mean that I didn't recognize you speaks volumes of just how well you did, a normal person wouldn't have seen you."

"Abnormal then, are you?" Shikamaru asked.

Hitomi hesitated, with Sasuke her eyes had been less of a secret and she'd learned to be more up front about them, but if Shikamaru knew then . . . what if he tried to use her?

Sasuke thought very little of Nara Shikamaru and though Hitomi didn't totally agree with her commander's low esteem for the strategist. She'd be lying if she said a little bit of it hadn't rubbed off on her, and she wasn't ready to become one of his pawns.

But before she could say anything Shikamaru said "Don't worry, you've kept your secret for what, twenty two years now haven't you? I won't force you to tell me now. Anyway I planned to show myself to you once your exercises were over, I didn't want to get in the way."

"And what do you want?" Hitomi asked.

Shikamaru yawned, "World peace, but if you mean from you then mostly I just want to talk if you have the time."

"Let me guess, this is about Nao." Hitomi grunted.

"Should it be?" Shikamaru asked, "I understand he's attracted to you, but I fail to see how that's my business. I don't need to get involved in other people's love lives, planning a war is troublesome enough."

"I'd imagine." Hitomi said calmly, though a bit of her wasn't convinced Shikamaru hadn't come on Naomasa's behalf in some fashion and was just being deceptive.

"I need to know two important things; first in regards to your squads. Do you think you can trust your squads, do you need any materials for them and are they prepared to move."

"That's three questions," Hitomi scoffed, then checked herself, this wasn't Sasuke she was talking to after all, "I mean . . ."

Shikamaru just smirked though, "Fine, two categories and four things. Answers?"

"Yes to the first, yes to the second, but even with what we have yes to the third. Sasuke-sama trusted them, _I_ trust them. We _could _use some supplies, flak jackets if there are any, kunai and equipment pouches, some of our ninja are using makeshift knives, real ones would be preferable. But even so we're ready a fight, I guarantee it."

"Good, because you're in the van." Shikamaru said flatly.

The van, or vanguard, Nara Shikamaru was putting her on the front lines?

Was it meant as an honor or a suicide mission?

"You and your people know the mainland better than we do now, I'll need you with an advanced troop to secure the landing," Shikamaru explained, "You'll be going with a pair of Jounin squads led by Haruno Sakura and Hyuga Neji, they should be helpful."

Indeed Neji's eyes would be useful and take some pressure of Hitomi's own, and Sakura's medical ability would be helpful too.

Shikamaru put his hands in his pockets, then said "You however, have tactical command, Sakura and Neji may be senior to you but you have more experience with the terrain, once the main force lands you'll be differing to Sakura's orders."

"Understood," Hitomi said, glad she wouldn't have to give orders to two Konoha legends once the fighting broke out, it felt presumptuous.

Shikamaru watched her silently for a moment, then finally said, "Now, I know you don't want to talk about Nao and personally if I could care any less about your love life I'd be amazed. However I trust Nao, and he trusts you, so . . . I am going to trust you. You've worked with Sasuke for four years now, you've seen the sort of person he is, you know his capabilities at least somewhat . . . so second category, final question . . . can I trust him?"

"Can you trust Sasuke?" Hitomi blinked.

She wanted to say "of course" however . . .

"Naruto-sensei can trust him." She decided, "He won't turn on Naruto-sensei, and I think Sakura-san . . . but he doesn't think much of you . . . I think if he gets an opportunity to take overall command of Leaf's forces from you he'll do it."

"I guessed that," Shikamaru admitted, "so you're saying that he himself is not trustworthy?"

"No." Hitomi said, "You can trust him . . . about as far as you can throw him."

"I doubt I can throw him far." Shikamaru admitted.

"Well that's still how far you can trust him. He doesn't want anyone to be better than him, but he also doesn't respect anyone who isn't in his ball park, the closer to his level you are the more he'll put up with your presence." Hitomi said, "He'll do what he thinks is right and if he thinks it's wrong he'll do it if it benefits him without screwing his allies too badly . . . does that answer your question?"

"More or less, and it's pretty much repetition of my own views regarding Sasuke." Shikamaru shrugged. "I talked to Endo too, he said much the same thing. I wanted another opinion to be sure." The legendary genius of Konoha put his hands into his pockets and said, "Well it's late. You should get some rest. I understand you've got a child to take care of now . . ."

Hitomi hesitated, "I . . . yeah."

"How old?" Shikamaru asked.

"Terrible as it sounds I'm not entirely sure." Hitomi admitted, "I had no concept of time on the mainland so depending on when it is now she's either about to reach the six month mark, or a few days past it. . . well she's past the 'I won't sleep you can't make me' phase at least."

"They _pass _that?" Shikamaru sounded shocked.

"Well, she did," Hitomi said with a slight smile. "She's very quiet most of the time . . . I hope it's just who she is, and not because of what happened to . . ." She shook her head, she had no business telling Shikamaru these things and _he _had no business hearing them.

But he smiled, "You're worried the kid's mourning?"

In spite of herself Hitomi asked, "Is that weird?"

"Are _you_ mourning?" Shikamaru asked.

"I . . . it's different for me."

"If you're mourning, she'll mourn." Shikamaru said, "She'll take her cues from you. You're the adult in her life now; you're her role model, her world."

"I should never have . . ." Hitomi cut herself off, she didn't want to say it.

Shikamaru didn't put his hand on her shoulder or say something comforting and surprisingly this made Hitomi more comfortable. She didn't like being touched, comforting gestures always made her feel uncomfortable, and comforting words never seemed truly genuine except when they came from her Sensei or her friend Miyuki or . . .

"I'm sorry . . . I shouldn't be talking about this sort of thing." Hitomi mumbled. She glanced into the distance, in the direction of the village, "Can I ask a personal favor of you?"

"Mm?" Shikamaru asked.

"I . . . if I die . . . I know it's of no concern to you but Saeki . . . she has a bloodline inheritance from her mother . . . and father. I wanted to give you the details, insomuch as I know them. If I should die I don't want her not knowing what she's in for."

Shikamaru seemed to hesitate, then he said "All right . . . tell me."

* * *

Iwao slammed his cup down on the table, the tea inside of it spilled on the stone table.

"Not the usual reaction to this sort of news," Gamo Katashi grunted.

"My uncle is making _me _the head of the assault force?" Iwao roared in fury, "I want no special treatment!"

"And I don't want a spoiled brat leading me and my men to our deaths but since we're ninja it's our duty to shut up, smile, and take it like a man when the Tsuchikage gives us an order we don't like."

Gamo could take that way only because they were inside of the ninja barracks, out in the streets they'd have to act as if they weren't really Shinobi.

It was because of the laws that the Emperor had laid out in his divine wisdom, so Iwao didn't mind the secrecy. Still it would have been nice to have laws against talking so freely anywhere, Iwao was barely promoted to Jounin, had barely gotten used to being one of the country's twenty "public ninja" meaning that he could live in the barracks and be recognized publicly as a Shinobi of the village.

So every time someone mentioned ninja around him he had an urge to "silence" them forever out of pure habit.

Never mind that Gamo had insulted him to boot, he could handle insults like that because he knew they weren't true.

He was a noble and loyal Shinobi of the Empire, and his status as Jounin was well earned.

A position as Head Ninja on the other hand . . . that did seem like favoritism on his uncle's part.

When the second messenger arrived to tell him that The Tsuchikage demanded his presence--in Iwagakure the Tsuchikage didn't "request" anything, he demanded--Iwao knew it was his chance to set things right and step down from the position.

He rushed to the Tsuchikage's chambers and found his uncle, the Tsuchikage standing and talking to the Sound liaison, as he usually was.

Uncle Toshiie didn't seem to notice him right away, and he waited patiently to be recognized.

Toshiie looked a lot like Iwao's own father had, but younger. His head was shorn, he was covered in thick muscles and ugly scars.

But to the ninja of the Juukei clan those scars were badges of honor, they showed the survivability of the ninja, showed how many foes had tried to best them and failed to deliver the killing blow.

Toshiie welcomed him, "Ah, prompt as usual, Captain."

"Lord Tsuchikage, you called for me, and I wish to discuss--" Iwao began but the Tsuchikage cut him off.

"I want you as my eyes and ears on the front lines because of your loyalty to the Emperor, you were informed of my orders for the ninja?"

"Yes, I could not disagree with them more." Iwao said, "Ruining the women of a defeated foe is an outdated barbaric practice, one we modern ninja are above. Worse any offspring from the coupling would just loan the weaker nation the strength of the sire from our land. You cannot mix the blood of a champion pedigree hunting dog with the blood of a mangy wolf."

"It is a psychological tool." The Tsuchikage said, "It allows us to say to our enemies we have done this, and you can do nothing."

"Our men might as well lay with their flocks of sheep, it is much the same act." Iwao scoffed.

The Tsuchikage glared a warning, "No. Your foes are human beings, cunning, intelligent with their own hopes and dreams and ambitions, each has a past, a history, a story, each is a living soul. Your father made the mistake of seeing our nation's foes as nothing more than beasts to be slaughtered and that he paid for with his life. If you wish to avoid the same fate I warn you: recall that you are dealing with people not so different from those within our own borders."

"Then why terrorize them?" Iwao asked.

"Because they must be taught a lesson just as any child who disobeys must be beaten with a rod so must a civilization that strays be reeducated. As for your complaints about the mixture of honorable blood and traitorous blood, perhaps a bit of honor in their gene pool will do them good."

Iwao was young, he had a lot to learn.

But loyalty to the Empire aside it irked him to think that he would be ordered to break Imperial law. He understood that the message was that Imperial law only applied when dealing with Imperial citizens, but felt that Imperial soldiers should hold themselves to a higher standard and that that would send an even stronger message.

If not for the fact that the Sound Liaison had approved the order--if not suggested it to the Tsuchikage, as Iwao had found many of his uncle's more irritating orders originated from Minoru Hikaru--he would disobey it.

However, because he was a loyal son of the Empire he would carry it out without further question.

He would crush the Lightning Armies, then burn every border village, terrorize the people, then return home with honor knowing that he had, if nothing else, done the Emperor's work.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	17. Incineration Palm

**Chapter Sixteen**

Hitomi hesitated as Kaoru handed her the loaf of bread.

"It's not going to bite you . . . as long as you bite it first." He said with a slight smile.

Hitomi shook her head, she knew or at least she was pretty sure of why this person was being nice to her.

It was the same reason most men who didn't know her were nice to her . . .

She knew what he wanted from her, or probably wanted, and she wasn't going to give it to him.

So she wouldn't accept anything that he might feel she should repay him for. She wasn't entirely sure why she'd decided to follow him to his camp in the first place, she'd rationalized it as a mere desire to sit by a fire without having to watch her own back, one thing she missed since leaving Sasuke's crew was the security of a group.

She lowered her gaze and watched the fire, Kaoru continued offering the loaf of bread for a bit, then retracted his hand, "I'm not going to bite you either you know." He said.

Hitomi grunted.

He smirked at her and said, "So what's your story? Mine; I'm originally from the Waterfall country see, so you might be wondering what I'm doing this close to Wind territory, right?" Kaoru said but Hitomi was a little surprised she was anywhere near Wind's territory.

She was still in the forests; she assumed she was still in the Lands of Fire--or rather the Lands of Sound now--heading for the Rain country.

Kaoru continued though, "I'm on a quest. It's just something my clan does. Of course quest might be too fanciful. Really dangerous errand might be the better word for it y'know. I have to go deep into the territory of Wind to these mountains. I've been there before, but I had to go again."

"Why?" Hitomi asked.

"The first time I went for myself, this time I have to go for someone else. It's just how things work in my clan."

"Sounds complicated." Hitomi said.

"Nah, it's really not that bad. A ten day trip there and back, spare some time to dally at the destination and I'm done in less than two weeks." Kaoru said, "It's pure chance I met you at all really, I wouldn't have been going through this forest until tomorrow but I decided to keep walking tonight, didn't want to be in Sound territory too long."

"Talkative, aren't you?" Hitomi commented.

"Well I'm a little nervous, never done this before." Kaoru said.

Warning sounds went off in Hitomi's head, "Done _what _exactly?" She asked in a mildly hostile tone.

But Kaoru didn't seem to notice, he just said "Trusted someone who's so obviously a ninja, especially in Sound territory . . . I mean people tend to go missing in this land, and ninja are always blamed."

Hitomi relaxed a bit but not much, "So you invited me here because you wanted to see if I was trustworthy?"

"What? No, no, a simple act like showing up for dinner--a dinner you're very pointedly not eating, I'd feel much better if you ate _something--_can't show me how trustworthy you are."

"Then what did you want?" Hitomi asked.

Kaoru shrugged, "A companion I guess."

Again, warning sounds. He desired a "companion" in what sense?

Hitomi swallowed audibly. Kaoru was an attractive young man, and far from the sort who usually flirted with her he actually looked like he might be her age, but she still wasn't interested.

He smiled and said "I'm probably making you uncomfortable, talking about people disappearing in these parts . . . but I don't mean to. I was supposed to make this trip with my sister, see, but she couldn't come this time."

"Why?" Hitomi asked.

"Well she's pregnant, see. Her husband was going to come along in her place but she could give birth any day now so I told him "no, don't be stupid, I'll be fine" and yet here I am, inviting a complete stranger to my camp because I, a grown man, am more than a little afraid of this forest."

Hitomi smiled slightly, "Well as long as you don't try to . . . do anything to me, you don't have to worry. I'm deadlier than anything else in this forest."

"I'll believe that." Kaoru said with a slight smile of his own. "Who knows, maybe it's fate . . ."

* * *

"I suppose it's just fate," Ichiteru-san was saying, Hitomi snapped out of her daze.

She was in the kitchen with Ichiteru helping Emiko-san to prepare dinner. Cooking was not for her, she didn't like wearing the apron either. Not helping her hosts at all however was even less her thing, and so while she was not particularly proficient or enthusiastic cook she was by no means about to refuse to assist.

Hitomi looked at the older woman and asked, "What do you mean? What's fate?"

"My husband and I vacationing in Waves just when Uchiha-san needed us to be there." Ichiteru said, "My getting to meet you."

Hitomi frowned, "Why is meeting me relevant?"

"Because you're you," Ichiteru laughed, "You're a family friend I've never met before and by the sheerest of coincidences you ended up saving my son."

"Not total coincidence," Hitomi said, "Sasuke-sama was watching your house from the moment Endo went in, so I saw your son run off and I followed him."

"I know. Still, that it would be you . . . you whom both my brother and sister think so highly of, and not Uchiha-san himself, or someone else."

Hitomi shrugged, "I was Sasuke-sama's second in command. He probably just trusted me the most."

"That's good." Ichiteru said. "Emiko said that you were an impressive ninja even back when ninja were still common."

Hitomi didn't know what to say, so she said nothing.

Emiko said, "Ichiteru-san doesn't mean to come off so shamelessly in her praise," Emiko said, "She just want's you to be in a good mood when she says what she wants to say."

Hitomi raised an eyebrow; Ichiteru blew her own bangs out of her eyes, "Thank you Emi-chan."

"You don't want her to feel you're manipulating her."

Hitomi frowned, "What is it?"

Ichiteru hesitated, and then said "I like your daughter very much. I would protect her with my life while you were away . . . if you'd let me."

Hitomi smiled slightly, "In exchange for me watching Naomasa's back?"

"No." Ichiteru said, "You protected my child and so I will be happy to protect yours. I know you must be wondering what to do with her, perhaps you even considered me and didn't want to impose so . . . I'm telling you now that I'd be happy--no _honored_ to take care of Saeki-chan."

Hitomi smiled, "Thank you . . . that would be most helpful."

Ichiteru smiled and said, "Good. Now that that's settled, how did your training mission go tonight?"

"It was fine," Hitomi said, "it actually helped me lay a lot of my anxieties to rest . . . and you sort of helped with another burden on my shoulders; wondering what to do about Saeki while I'm gone. If I were the type for it I might find myself feeling _happy_."

"Do you not feel happy very often?" Emiko asked, and Hitomi was surprised because she seemed to be asking a question and in all the time she'd been on the island, Hitomi hadn't heard the younger of Nao's sisters ask a question.

She only seemed to make statements, confident statements.

Hitomi considered, and then said "I wonder if I'd recognize happiness when I felt it . . . whenever I think I'm close I just remember things I have to worry about. My friends who're still out there somewhere . . . or might not be. My Sensei, wondering where he is, if he's safe, if he'll be back soon, and then . . ." She didn't mention that she also thought about Naomasa.

He gave her no small amount of stress. She just didn't know how to handle Naomasa.

To her surprise however Emiko smiled and said "Naruto is going to come back, Shikamaru already asked me, I already hazarded my guess and my guesses are never wrong. Naruto will be back just in time."

Hitomi smiled slightly. Naruto-sensei was almost like an older brother or perhaps even a second father, and she felt safer when he was around. She felt confident when he was there to make decisions, even if a lot of others doubted Naruto-sensei's judgment Hitomi knew that the young Hokage was every bit the sort of hero and legend that generations to come would remember.

Knowing that he'd be back soon did give her some hope that with his help Hara and Miyuki would be found unharmed, or avenged.

She smiled, maybe _that _was where Hara and Miyuki were. Maybe Naruto-sensei had left the village to find them and then gone off to train, maybe the only reason he hadn't gotten her too was because she was with Sasuke-sama who had taught her lots of important things on his own.

Maybe Naruto-sensei would come back _with _Hara and Miyuki . . .

She smiled slightly, and her nature took over, reminding her that that was probably never going to happen, that she was just getting her hopes up, that she was bound to be disappointed.

She sighed, but her smile remained on her lips, the idea that seeing Naruto-sensei again was in any way confirmed was just too exciting to totally extinguish her spirits.

* * *

It was getting late; Konohamaru-senpai had already fallen asleep at the table and Yomiko didn't seem that far behind.

Kyoko seemed oddly distracted so really the fact that Nao wasn't entirely focused on his work didn't seem all that unforgivable.

They had the exams more or less planned out, they were ready.

But Konohamaru had wanted them to double check, triple check and carry on checking their work until the very last minute so that's exactly what they were doing.

But now that he'd fallen asleep the three of them were being less diligent.

They'd been over the plans again and again, everything was in order considering their limited resources, even Naomasa felt confident that they'd get through the exams without any fatalities.

The door opened suddenly and Naomasa's head snapped automatically back down to the pile of papers, Konohamaru jerked awake and sat up, and Kyoko massaged a cramp in her neck.

Shikamaru-sensei walked in and said "What's up?"

"Finishing up," Yomiko reported with a yawn, "what brings you by, Sensei?"

"Oh just making the rounds before I go to sleep." Shikamaru said.

"Temari-sensei says you don't sleep these days." Kyoko observed.

Shikamaru-sensei smirked, "She just thinks that because I sleep at exactly the same time she does."

It was a lie, or maybe more a joke, and Naomasa felt a bit of anxiety on his Sensei's behalf.

He didn't know what he could say to make things better, Shikamaru-sensei was like a resource that was being overused, over spent. He was a genius but he wasn't some deity, he needed rest just like anyone else.

But Nao couldn't say "Don't worry, we'll win this" because Shikamaru wouldn't just accept it, he'd say something like "yeah, I'll make sure of that" and then probably end up working even harder.

He couldn't say "Don't sweat it, it'll all work out" because Shikamaru-sensei just didn't seem to believe that and neither did Nao. Things weren't going to just sort themselves out; everyone was going to have to work to achieve the desired end.

Shikamaru asked "You'll be ready when we cast off?"

"I think they will be," Konohamaru said, "I have their requisition lists, and Shiho-san already made all the wavers and forms for the Genin squads to sign, we'll hand them out to our Genin teams tomorrow and give them to the other teams when the time comes."

"Good." Shikamaru said, "I'm glad to know I was right to count on you three. The Genin teams should be promising, everyone will be trying to prove that they're ready for the attack."

"I hope they are," Kyoko said, "I hope we can win this war without suffering too many casualties."

"At this point even a hollow victory is still a victory," Konohamaru observed, "I'd like to just kill Orochimaru and Kabuto and let this war finally end."

Shikamaru shrugged, "It won't be as simple as taking down just the leaders but I do agree; we should try to end this quickly."

"We'll do everything we can, Sensei." Yomiko said, "You can ask us for anything."

"Except money." Kyoko pointed out.

Shikamaru laughed and said "All right, I'll keep that in mind . . . but I think the four of you should get some rest, you've got still more work to do tomorrow and I need you all to be sharp when the exam day finally arrives."

Nao nodded and stood up from the planning table, "Well, I think we're as prepared as we can be, but like any battle even the best laid plans probably won't remain intact once the exam starts."

"Well, make whatever preparations you feel are necessary." Shikamaru said, "The better your tests the clearer it'll be which of these Genin are prepared to be Chuunin, and the better the Chuunin selection the higher the success rate of the missions these teams will be sent on in the future."

Naomasa nodded again, he wondered about asking Hitomi for help . . . would it seem devious going to her about the exam? She had spent a great deal of time as an examiner after all and she might have suggestions . . . but at the same time his preparations were made, it wasn't as if he _needed _her suggestions.

If nothing else it would be an excuse to see her, but she'd pick up on that immediately and probably send him away . . .

He clenched his fists in his pockets as he left the planning rooms of the Kazekage's office in the village. He knew he had bigger things to worry about, and yet Hitomi dominated his mind whenever he wasn't too busy working on the exams.

The group said their goodnights and went their separate ways. Nao sighed, he'd just have to avoid Hitomi until after the Chuunin exam. He'd gone four years without seeing her he shouldn't start freaking out now that she was in town.

But at the same time part of him enjoyed freaking out about Hitomi . . . he'd loved her--or was pretty sure he'd loved her--almost right off the bat. It seemed a given, at least to him, that she'd start to feel the same way now that he was more grown up.

He shook his head and as he walked home, thinking himself alone Shikamaru suddenly said "Naomasa, a word if you have a minute."

Nao raised an eyebrow, Shikamaru stood next to him, "I didn't want to say anything in front of Konohamaru or the girls, especially Kyoko . . . but I've been wondering if you've given Hijiri's Jutsu any more work."

"What?" Nao raised an eyebrow.

"If I recall correctly you were going to transform her Incineration Palm Jutsu into a non-lethal attack, right? Have you succeeded?"

Nao frowned . . . he hadn't. He still worked on it when he had the time, but he hadn't quite managed to transform it.

Far from it he'd mostly just managed to make it delay killing the target, or else the incineration itself was just slower, the death would likely happen just as quickly.

"I haven't." Naomasa admitted.

Shikamaru frowned, "Hijiri has confirmed what I already sort of guessed . . . Orochimaru is using Kotaro as the leader of his Sound Five. By now he'll be every bit Kakashi's son, a brilliant tactician and a powerful combatant . . . with four years training under Orochimaru. Three years of that turned Uchiha Sasuke into an S-Ranked criminal, so I can only imagine what four has done for Kotaro."

"Why are you telling me this? I mean why are you telling just me and not the others?"

"I wanted to tell everyone individually, starting with you. Hitomi mentioned you were working on her Jutsu, making it non-lethal . . . don't give up. It might help us to get Kotaro back . . ." Shikamaru hesitated, then said "I'll help you if I have time."

"Don't trouble yourself with this Sensei, you have bigger responsibilities than helping me train." Nao said.

"I know you're a Special Jounin now but you're always going to be my student. So are Yomiko and yes, Kotaro. My students are my family, and my family is my most important responsibility." Shikamaru said, "I've done all I can to prepare for the war, if we can get Kotaro back safe and sound that'll be a bit of good luck and we may not have a lot of that. We have until the beginning of the Chuunin Exams to work something out, Nao. I'll talk to Yomiko and Kyoko too, one on one."

Nao nodded.

Once upon a time he would have thought 'great, Sensei will help me master my Jutsu' now all he could think was 'I might have to use Hitomi's Jutsu on _Kotaro_?'

Hitomi's Incineration Palm was a Jutsu designed to shove a sphere of flame into a person's body where it would explode and burn them alive from the inside out.

As a kid trying to impress Hitomi he'd sworn that he'd change the Jutsu so it would incapacitate instead of kill. He wanted to give her a high-powered Jutsu that would allow her to stop killing.

Hitomi had once told him that the key difference between herself and Oedo Tomoko was that while Tomoko fought because she loved her family and her country Hitomi fought because she hated. She said she hated everything from the people invading the Lands of Fire to the people living in it, she fought and killed because hatred was all she had.

And Nao supposed that that had been part of what attracted him to her, the desire to change that in her. He believed that really she was just as capable of love as Tomoko was, and he wanted to be the first one to see the proof firsthand.

She'd found someone else, but for whatever reason that guy didn't seem to be around . . . unless it was Sasuke, Nao wondered if Sasuke was the father of Hitomi's baby . . . how could he compete with a living legend?

Not that it mattered, there were bigger issues now. He still loved Hitomi, still wanted her . . . but his friend needed to be rescued.

It was funny how things changed. Now impressing Hitomi seemed by far less important than rescuing Kotaro. Hitomi's Jutsu needed to be adjusted . . . but not so that she'd fall in love with him.

But then again Naruto-sama had spent years trying to force his friend Sasuke to return to Konoha, had put his dreams on hold for the sake of it.

He closed his eyes and said "Shikamaru-sensei . . . if Kotaro won't come back . . ."

"Then we take him prisoner. Failing that . . . if he is a threat . . ."

Nao smiled wryly, "Chuunin exams, rescuing Kotaro, capturing Kotaro . . . maybe . . . and finding some way to balance my social life."

"Love life you mean." Shikamaru said with a smirk, "Welcome to my world. Learning to handle all that and more is part of being a ninja these days it seems. Who knows, maybe someday you'll be the chief strategist."

"That's a job that'll fall to Kotaro when we get him back." Nao said.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note:** Happy holidays to those who celebrate them, consider this a Christmas gift bonus chapter with the normal chapter posted later this weekend.


	18. The Controller

**Chapter Seventeen**

Kasumi giggled as she watched Kotaro play shogi with Kabuto.

Kabuto had lost, he just didn't see it yet. He'd tried to lay a trap for Kotaro, who had in turn seemed to walk right into it.

It wasn't as if Kabuto never beat Kotaro, in fact Kabuto won about a third of their matches.

But Kasumi could see Kotaro had laid a trap of his own, so though Kabuto pretended to agonize over the decision of what piece to move when he finally did, smirking because he believed he'd trumped Kotaro, the younger ninja made his move without a moment's hesitation and Kabuto's smirk disappeared.

The game wasn't technically over, but Kabuto could see now that he was beaten.

Kasumi loved watching Kotaro play games, or do anything really. She couldn't wait to give herself to him, though her head always got a bit fuzzy as to _why _she would want to do that.

She supposed it was because he was handsome or something, either way she knew the desire was in her head and since nobody else ever went in there it must have been her who put it there.

It might be because he was the best.

It might be because he was really very handsome under that mask he wore.

Maybe it was because she suspected he was really a very affectionate person.

Maybe he reminded her of . . . who was it?

What was the name?

She couldn't really remember, she _thought _she'd loved someone before Kotaro, she'd _told _people about him, the others _knew _who he was and Kasumi herself usually remembered the name with enough effort.

But she forgot it fairly often too.

So it must not have been all that important.

What had his name been? Who cared? He clearly hadn't been as interesting as Kotaro-kun, she never forgot _his _name.

She watched Kotaro defeat Kabuto and smirked.

He always played hard to get, she wasn't sure why. She'd get him though, one way or another. If she had to tie him down and force herself on him she'd have her way, she _always _got her way.

Lord Orochimaru spoiled her, even though she was technically the lowest ranked of the Five she didn't see it as being inferior to the others.

She saw it as being the most important.

If Lord Orochimaru needed to leave Mitarashi Anko's body for any reason he would possess Kotaro first. If Kotaro were dead or otherwise unavailable he would take Kurai, then Yukio, then Shiroi and finally if he had no other option he would take Kasumi.

Didn't that make her the most important? The _last_ person Lord Orochimaru wanted to see wiped away?

She wondered what it'd be like to have sex with Kotaro if he had Orochimaru's soul. Would she even be allowed to? It wouldn't be Kotaro anymore, but instead Lord Orochimaru, and to her knowledge nobody so much as touched Lord Orochimaru to wake him from a nightmare--not that he had nightmares since he had nothing to fear--let alone shared a bed with him.

So . . . that meant unless they could get Uchiha Sasuke her chance to bed Kotaro could go right out the window if she didn't do it before Lord Orochimaru took over his body . . .

Pity.

Maybe Kotaro would have to stop playing hard to get then, maybe she'd be more aggressive in pursuing him.

She scratched her chin lightly . . . what had that other guy's name been?

Ma something . . . Mata?

No . . .

Mana?

No . . .

Probably wasn't important.

_No, completely unimportant, put it from my mind_, she commanded herself, _focus on Kotaro._

She yawned, sometimes the voice in her head didn't seem like her own voice.

It was like it _sounded _different or something . . .

Probably just her imagination. After all it wasn't like her internal voice made noise, it couldn't sound like someone else because there was no sound.

Masa?

Yes . . . that was part of the name . . .

She smiled slightly.

* * *

Okatsu massaged her forehead as she approached the Emperor's throne.

Lord Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, "Yes?" He asked.

It was unnerving sometimes, Lord Orochimaru seemed to use his own voice from Anko's body and with Genjutsu appeared in his own body rather than the feminine form of his host, however every once in a while Okatsu could hear just the faintest sign of a female voice escaping from Lord Orochimaru's throat.

Okatsu didn't bother to hide her weariness, she knew Lord Orochimaru didn't care about that kind of formality and allowing her irritation to show would convey that she was most definitely on his side and that she didn't agree with the complaints she was bringing him.

"The Controller is complaining, holy one."

"About what, pray tell?" Orochimaru asked lazily.

"It seems that Lord Kurai resisted him for a moment, but that is not unusual, Kurai is often one to question the subliminal control Jutsu, so no complaint was filed _then_," Okatsu said and Orochimaru nodded slightly though the look in his eyes was not one of approval, "and Kasumi is also becoming more and more resistant to the subliminal suggestions."

"The Mist is still working?" Orochimaru asked.

"Yes, Lord Kabuto's Mist continues to keep them in a calm state. But to avoid long term damage to their capacity for memory and reasoning we have to give them far less than the prisoners in the labyrinth, if we increase the Mist any more we could have a bunch of zombies on our hands just like the test subjects, and if they're going after Sasuke soon we shouldn't be vegetating the Five."

"I agree. However as long as Kabuto's Mist keeps them forgetting the small things Yamanaka can screw up a subliminal message or two. What was the problem with Kurai?"

"Our attempt to encourage him to do more shrine work failed. That's happened before." Okatsu shrugged, "He's very resistant to leaving his body with Astral Projection, I think it's because the insects swarmed in his avatars are in some way inferior to the ones in his own body, perhaps they respond differently to his control since these avatars of his were only recently turned into living hives."

Orochimaru nodded, "Very well . . . and what is Kasumi resisting?"

"Our attempts to encourage her to breed with Kotaro." Okatsu explained.

Orochimaru was very quiet, then to Okatsu's surprise the first Emperor of the dynasty and the Kamikage of all ninja asked rather sharply, "_Who_ gave the order to "breed" them, as you put it?"

Okatsu was surprised, "W-was it not you? The orders were filled out with the imperial seal . . ."

"Perhaps," Kabuto said, entering the room unannounced, "I might save us some trouble by coming clean. I gave the order for Yamanaka to implant the urge in Kasumi today, she seems drawn to Kotaro on her own so it's hardly a violation."

Okatsu supposed other women might have been upset, might have pointed out that subliminally forcing Kasumi to get pregnant at all, regardless of whether or not she liked the father, was still a violation. But Okatsu personally didn't care.

Kasumi wasn't a person so much as a tool, or perhaps a pet.

Yes, pet was a good word for it. A living thing who lived off the charity of her owners. Nobody asked their cat if it wanted to have kittens, Okatsu hadn't even questioned the legitimacy of the order.

"Your reasons for this order?" Orochimaru asked curiously.

"We've done experiments on Kurai and Shiroi's progeny, have we not? We know more about the Byakugan than we could have otherwise discovered, it seemed only natural to want to experiment on the Shadow Eye as well, thus I ordered The Controller to encourage Kasumi to bare a child."

Okatsu couldn't tell what sort of mood Orochimaru was in because he was acting very neutrally. He wasn't praising or condemning Kabuto yet, which meant either that he really hadn't decided how to respond to this information, or he was furious and was letting Kabuto explain everything before he scolded him.

Blowing up and screaming and swearing was not Lord Orochimaru's way, but when the Divine Shadow was angry at someone that person was never left with any doubt of said anger's existence.

"You know that it is not the Byakugan I want, and it is not the Kagegan. I want the Sharingan, Kabuto, forcing Kasumi-chan to bare offspring and then experimenting on them will not _get _me the Sharingan, will it?" Orochimaru's tone was curiosity more than anger.

"Well because Hatake Kakashi--" Kabuto said and to her amazement Okatsu noticed a slight flinch in Orochimaru at the name, and Kabuto even stumbled in his sentence, looking at the emperor in surprise.

But he picked the sentence up again before Orochimaru could get angry and order him to do so, he said "Uh, that is Hatake Kakashi isn't an Uchiha so genetically he cannot pass on the Sharingan--"

"And," Okatsu added quickly, "We've extracted all the information we can from his own implanted Sharingan,"

"So we can only do our best to understand eye related bloodline inheritance in general. Knowing the similarities between the Byakugan and the Kagegan and any other special eyes we can get our hands on should help us to better understand the Sharingan."

"Those experiments stopped being necessary when we discovered Sasuke-kun was prowling around," Orochimaru said, "we no longer need to grow our own Sharingan eyes, we can just take his."

"Holy One I was only taking into consideration the possibility that Sasuke might not be brought in alive and that in the event of his death we might not have sufficient time to extract his secrets before the body decays beyond usefulness."

Orochimaru seemed to consider, then finally said "Taking Shiroi and Kurai's "genetic materials" to grow your little batch of near-clones turned out to be a waste of our time and resources,"

"My liege I've learned a great deal since then--" Kabuto tried but the Kamikage continued speaking.

"Sixty percent of your stock died because your surrogate mothers were inappropriate--"

"We would not use prisoners this time, we would abduct healthier women." Kabuto insisted.

"And of the forty percent total that survived to be born fifty percent of them died shortly after birth, if you recall, thus of your original stock only twenty percent survived that far. Then you lost more, and more, and then we had to start destroying some of them, and then more of them, tell me Kabuto, how many of your near clones remain from the Shiroi and Kurai experiment?"

"None . . . the last three are in the labyrinth, scheduled for destruction." Kabuto admitted.

"But we've extracted all the information we can so they're of no further use anyway, and failure is no reason not to try again," Okatsu dared to suggest.

To her surprise Orochimaru wasn't angry, he nodded, "I agree, and I do enjoy your work, Kabuto. _However _you never asked _me_ if _I_ wanted Kasumi and Kotaro mixing their blood together, did you? Shiroi and Kurai was an intriguing mix and one they came to on their own. Genetically speaking suppose I had other plans for Kasumi or Kotaro."

Lord Orochimaru smiled soothingly, "You are the Shogun, matters concerning the Samurai fall under your jurisdiction but these children are still ninja. They are still _mine_, and I do not want any of them incapacitated during the hunt for Sasuke."

Okatsu nodded, that made sense. With the war about to begin again having one of the Five on maternity leave wouldn't be ideal at all, even if she could still channel in to an avatar to fight it was not impossible that Sasuke or other enemies might make their way to the palace forcing the Five to fight them with their actual bodies.

And it was true, Lord Kabuto had crossed a definite line in assuming he had Lord Orochimaru's permission for the experiment. Though Kabuto was the Shogun Orochimaru was both Emperor and Kamikage, Lord Orochimaru held complete control of the government, Kabuto was all but a figurehead, controlling that which Lord Orochimaru had not interest in: the Samurai.

Kabuto bowed slightly and said "Very well, I'll behave myself." He said.

Orochimaru smirked, "Once the war is over you can do whatever experiments you like with whomever you like--" Orochimaru flinched, "--except for Kotaro-kun of course."

"Of course." Kabuto said with a nod. "So Okatsu-chan, tell Inoichi that he can stop playing matchmaker. Without his intrusions into her mind Kasumi-chan will fight us less."

"Of course." Okatsu said.

But Lord Orochimaru didn't look convinced, she knew what he was thinking.

What if it was too late?

If the seeds of doubt had been planted in Kasumi's head, if she suspected at all that she was being subliminally controlled . . .

But then the girl was so unstable in her own right there was no way she'd ever really realize what was going on, especially not with Kabuto's miracle drugs pumping through the air keeping her brain as soft as an overripe fruit.

"Give the girl extra gas for a while, toe the danger line, and tell Yamanaka to watch but not intrude on her mind," Orochimaru said, "I don't want to lose my most aggressive member of the Sound Five."

Okatsu saluted, Kabuto remained in the room to continue speaking to Lord Orochimaru and Okatsu left to carry out the orders.

Lord Orochimaru was wise, and he was fair, if it had been her crossing Kabuto in the days when Sound was just an organization Lord Kabuto would have punished her quite severely.

She recalled how he had given her last student before the Five a sword to cut his own head off in punishment for making mistake after mistake.

That gave her a bit of a chuckle as she walked through the halls. Lord Kabuto had always had a very macabre sense of humor.

Luckily for him Lord Orochimaru was more amused than angry . . . this time. But Okatsu hoped her beloved didn't try to cross their master again, she knew without a doubt that she wouldn't stand by him if he did.

Kabuto was a genius but Lord Orochimaru was a _god_.

* * *

Kasumi lay on her bed late that night thinking quietly to herself.

_Masaru . . . _she thought.

That was the name, she was certain of it . . . she'd really liked him.

Maybe more than she liked Kotaro now, and she liked Kotaro an awful lot . . .

Masaru . . . he'd been someone she'd known a long time . . . a brother? No, no that would be gross . . . she felt like she _did _have a brother, but Masaru was something else.

What then? A . . . teammate? Yes, a teammate. And . . . something had happened to him. Something bad had happened to him . . .

Someone was responsible . . . someone she'd vowed to take revenge on.

She tossed and turned.

Konoha . . . that was it, right? It was Konoha . . . they had done whatever had been done, they had to be punished . . . but they didn't exist anymore.

Except for Uchiha Sasuke, her master wanted her to bring Sasuke back.

Then if he had Sasuke he would release Kotaro's mother and father and that would make Kotaro happy.

And maybe if Kotaro was happy again he'd like her.

Kasumi smiled lightly, she wanted someone to like her again.

Because she was pretty sure that Masaru had liked her, and she was pretty sure that had made her really happy.

Masaru . . . she wanted to work hard to remember the name this time. She didn't want to forget.

She wondered why she was so forgetful lately. Maybe she'd always been forgetful? Why didn't she feel like she'd always been forgetful? If she hadn't _always _been a forgetful person why was she now? Why did the room smell sort of strange?

She coughed, the air smelled really bad. That was familiar too, but she couldn't remember why. She thought about opening a window, but something in her head said "don't be such a big baby, so there's some dust in the room, get over it" and she just lay in bed thinking about . . . what's his face . . .

**To Be Continued . . .**


	19. Amagiri

**Chapter Eighteen**

Sasuke watched the large gray ships in the distance, obscured by the mists.

He could have seen them clearly with his Sharingan he supposed, but chose not to waste the energy.

Six big destroyers and four big troop carriers, each loaded with two legions of soldiers and Samurai. Gone were the spear wielding peasant mobs of the last war, in their place were trained--albeit poorly--armored--albeit lightly--soldiers.

The ninja in the soldier ranks had left their legions and donned the gray and lavender colors of the village hidden in Mist again; since this was without question an invasion force the pretence of following the imperial law was being dropped.

Sasuke was stunned by the number of ninja he saw, though most were either youths or no doubt retirees called back into service Suigetsu had assembled a formidable force.

Karin hooked her arm around his and pulled him towards the docks, "Come on. It's stupid to put all your eggs in one basked so _of course _Suigetsu wants you, me, and Juugo on the flag ship . . . idiot."

Sasuke was too impressed by the invasion force to really notice Karin's banter.

This was just the iron fist of the fleet, from the various surrounding islands of the Lands of Water wooden war ships and a few metal ones would launch with more soldiers and marines and even a few more ninja ready to unleash hell on the Sound Empire.

It made what Sasuke had seen in the refugee village seem paltry, how many soldiers did they have there, after all, a few thousand?

And how many ninja? Probably just a few hundred if that.

Sasuke shook his head, perhaps whatever the future held joining Mist was just prudent.

They might just be the strongest Shinobi power in the world now, and with him in their ranks they'd just gotten much stronger.

He smirked at what he recognized as a bit of--he felt--well deserved narcissism in that thought.

Mist had an army, they had rebuilt well after the war.

Well they had a better opportunity, he supposed. They were still a whole nation, their gains had been lost but they'd lost none of their original territory when Lightning shoved them off of the mainland. Gaara and Shikamaru only had the population of a single city--Konoha--and as many of the families from Sunagakure as would and could be rescued with which to rebuild their army.

Still why hadn't their number of ninja skyrocketed? Sasuke would have expected at least Konoha's old average of thirty Genin per graduating class each year, and if they had been ordering the Sensei to train everyone over the four years since the war's end instead of failing a third of that number that should have made for over a hundred new ninja . . . so why had Shikamaru suggested that the village still had only about the same amount of ninja that had escaped from Konoha?

Sasuke kept his face devoid of expression as he spoke to Karin seeking the answers, "Karin-chan, I was just wondering how my former village usually does in the Chuunin exams. Do many of Hidden in Shadow's teams pass?"

"Sure, but I think our teams are better anyway," Karin shrugged, "they're just handicapped because the freedom to intentionally kill your opponent was stripped from the second and third exams. Our Genin do like to play rough after all." Karin snickered, adjusting her glasses, "Naturally Shikamaru's softer supporters trained their teams in the non-lethal takedown so they fare better in the third exams than we do."

Perhaps Sasuke wasn't being specific enough, "About how many Chuunin get promoted from Shikamaru's village each exam then?"

"Nothing _too_ abnormal, only about five percent of the entrants, compared to our three percent, but since we have more entries both villages are ending up with pretty much the same amount of Chuunin."

Sasuke kept his irritation from showing on his face.

Karin squeezed his arm and asked, "Are you trying to get me to tell you how many ninja each army has, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke sighed, and pulled his arm away from her. Rather than admit that she was correct and that he wanted the information he decided he'd just ask Juugo if he knew, and if that failed he'd just ask Suigetsu.

Or maybe he should just avoid Suigetsu for now, especially when it came to gathering what might be seen as intelligence on Mist's strength in comparison to Konoha's remnants.

He wondered briefly if the numbers Shikamaru had mentioned were just Chuunin and better, maybe he didn't count Genin. That could more than double the force the village was sending . . .

But then he doubted Shikamaru would think him clever enough to understand that. Shikamaru would have mentioned Genin right along with the Chuunin, after all Genin were going to be fighting too.

No, Sasuke would have to figure out for himself why his former comrades were so weak compared to his new ones.

He did smile a bit when he reached the dock and saw Juugo and Suigetsu waiting.

Suigetsu smirked at him, "Remember our flagship, the _Amagiri_?"

"I never knew its name before," Sasuke admitted, "but if that is the ship I'm traveling on it would be my honor, Mizukage-sama."

Suigetsu laughed and waved his hand, "Come on then, lets go aboard. Do be respectful; I have no real authority over the Admiral once we're on his ship. If he decides to throw any of you overboard for whatever reason, I can only say 'please don't' and if it's Karin-chan I won't bother."

Sasuke nodded and hefting his bag of equipment--which Suigetsu's servants had given him that morning, assuring him that an extra Mist uniform and a special flak jacket were inside along with all the equipment he'd need--and climbed the long ramp up to the deck of the ship.

It was massive, metal, and had several heavy ballistae ready to propel massive bolts at other ships.

Sasuke had seen the Lands of Waters' navy in action before, the ballista were capable of punching a hole through the armor of one of the more powerful metal war ships or outright obliterating a wooden vessel.

Assuming they hit.

He noticed also that the _Amagiri's _eight ballistae had been replaced with some sort of double ballista on what appeared to be mechanical turrets.

He wondered what that would do for accuracy; if the men didn't have to personally push the gun into place aiming at a moving target might be easier.

But Sasuke knew nothing of naval battle outside of his own role in the madness, which was to get aboard an enemy ship and slaughter its crew.

But it felt good to be on the deck of the Water Country's flagship, it felt like the war was finally getting going . . . like Orochimaru was going to be stopped once and for all.

A pity the massive war ship couldn't go with them onto the land; Sasuke reveled in thinking of what even a single ballista would do to the walls of the abomination of a city that Orochimaru had built over the burnt out corpse of Konohagakure.

* * *

He heard the cell door open, the guards entered.

He opened his eyes lazily, "Watch out, this one was a Jounin," the guard said.

"He'll be fine, won't you One-Six-Eight?" Okatsu snickered.

The prisoner wanted to charge at her; wanted to attack her.

But he didn't.

He simply complied and stood up to follow the guards out of the cell.

"Look at this as a sort of parole," Okatsu was saying, "you get to see the outside world for the first time in four years, and you get to have fun slaughtering your old friends and allies. Fun times will be had; oh I do hope some of our little experiments find someone who recognizes them."

The prisoner felt the same way. He hoped he could find this Hijiri Hitomi, the woman whose name he _remembered_.

Was she the woman he saw in his dreams or perhaps just a link to her? Would she know him at all? He had to find out.

"I . . . am eager." He grumbled.

He saw others; a couple of whom he _thought _looked familiar from his attempted insurrection.

When had that been? Yesterday? A year ago? Ten years ago?

He had no idea, and he didn't care.

What mattered was getting out into the war; he felt his blood boiling with anticipation and blood lust.

He wanted to kill things . . . enemies, friends, small animals that didn't run away fast enough, he was eager to kill _anything_.

"Get them all packed up and shipped to Installation Z," Okatsu ordered, "Lord Kabuto and I expect everything to go perfectly, these monstrosities are going to end the war for us."

The prisoner considered . . . was that a good thing?

If the war was over maybe he'd be free.

Free to find this Hitomi, the first step to figuring out who _he_ was.

Everything in his head as muddled and confusing. He supposed he'd just have to kill every enemy he saw until he spotted one that looked a little familiar.

If they looked familiar to him then he might look familiar to them, and they might know who Hitomi was or better yet, know who _he _was.

* * *

Ito slung his crossbow over his shoulder and gave orders to his Samurai.

They were nowhere near enemy ships yet, but once he set foot on a war ship the Taisho of the armies of the Lands of Water was all business. The _Amagiri _was setting out and the Taisho wanted to be absolutely sure that the grand destroyer made a good impression on her enemies . . . right before she sank them.

"You don't have to look so stiff," The Mizukage said, "Juugo says that Lightning is sending their fleet out too with skeleton crews, a diversionary tactic to lure Orochimaru's fleets away from our landing zone, then once the ships are empty both fleets can crush the Sound navy between them."

"Never count your eggs before they hatch." Ito said simply, "We don't know how things might end. Maybe they'll catch Lightning before we arrive and be able to get back in time to block us; maybe they won't go for the bait at all. Maybe Lightning will stab us in the back again."

"No certainty in war, eh?" the Mizukage shrugged.

"There is _one_." Ito said and both he and the Mizukage laughed, even though it hadn't been a very funny statement.

The _Amagiri _sailed boldly across the dark blue waters of the deep ocean. Ito didn't know what the future held; the sea could be as unforgiving as war itself.

The Samurai smiled slightly. In a lot of ways the sea was like war. It was unpredictable, tragic, deadly, chaotic, and beautiful all at once. It didn't care who you were, who would miss you if you didn't survive it. It didn't set out to kill you personally even if it sometimes seemed like it did, but it also didn't care whether or not you survived it.

At least he felt that way. It was something he hoped he'd have a chance to tell his son someday.

Unlike the last time he'd seen action aboard the _Amagiri_ he was not in command.

The Daimyo had taken personal control of the fleet, natural selection had left Ito the highest ranking officer in the last war, this time the Daimyo was coming along personally, though Ito would still have a great deal of authority and responsibility.

He couldn't fail, even if he fell he needed to know that this war would be finished, needed to see the ninja reclaim their place in the world. He only hoped they would be able to do so without diminishing the regained importance of his own caste.

If the Konoha Genius's plan to replace the Emperor and keep the land united under the Emperor, Shogun and Kamikage worked out it might not be so bad. A single figure to handle big matters with both Samurai and Ninja acting as the right and left hands of the Emperor and the Daimyo . . .

Only time would tell.

Ito considered that it might not be very long before another war broke out anyway. Not in his generation, but perhaps in Taiki's.

The children wouldn't know the grit of what their parents did, would hear farcified war stories told by veterans and think 'what great deeds' and fancy themselves warriors one day.

Without a stronger power to enforce peace another war might just be inevitability.

But Ito wasn't really sure how he felt about that. Even over the last four years when the war had existed more or less only in everyone's hearts it'd still felt good to know that true to his caste calling, he was a soldier fighting that war.

Now when the war ended truly, be it in victory or defeat, when Samurai everywhere were expected to settle down again he wondered how many would be willing to.

Then again with ninja in the state they were Samurai were sure to have more power than Shinobi once the war ended, more military authority at least until the ninja rebuilt their ranks.

And why settle down at all? There were always bandits.

For now the important thing was to strike down the Daimyo's enemies now, to stop the Sound Shogun and Emperor, to kill the Kamikage.

Ito watched the large navy of the Lands of Water, watched as they sailed towards possible doom.

He smiled, how easily he settled in to the knowledge that he was once again going to war. He felt more alive then than he had at any point in the past four years.

"I can tell by the look in your eyes," The Mizukage smirked, "that you've still got a bit of fire in you, eh?"

"Yes," Ito smirked, "I can't wait to spot the enemy. This defeat they're about to suffer is a long time coming."

* * *

Emiko sipped her tea slowly and looked at the maps Shikamaru had laid out, "These are all from Hitomi-chan, yes?"

Shikamaru didn't bother to answer; they both knew she was right as usual.

The maps of course were not Hitomi's possessions, but the locations she had marked on them were what Emiko had been referring to, a fact that Shikamaru-san had easily caught.

They were serpent shrines; suspected serpent shrines, known shrines, these were all places that needed to be raided. Some or all of them might have information on Orochimaru's operations.

The problem was manpower; the ninja didn't have the numbers to raid each lair without it slowing down their invasion so Shikamaru had asked Emiko to guess which places he should commit himself to.

She'd picked the first five easily by just pointing to random spots on the map, trusting her luck, but Shikamaru had asked for six . . .

She hesitated and said "None of the others should be attacked . . ."

Shikamaru seemed surprised, "Why?" He asked.

"I don't know _why_, I'm just really sure that wherever the sixth attack goes off it's going to be wiped out over nothing. You'll get pretty much everything you need from these five places and have the sixth team ready to respond to any group that needs help."

Shikamaru nodded, "All right then . . . two more days until we set sail then."

"Yes, try to spend both of them at home getting some sleep."

"Temari put you up to this?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Your bloodshot eyes put me up to it, actually." Emiko smiled.

"I'll rest for _a _day, but on the second I've got a lot to do."

"Sakura-san and Gaara-sama will handle it all without trouble, I'm guessing. You should rest."

"I also promised your brother I'd help him work on a Jutsu to save his friend." Shikamaru said.

"Others will help him," Emiko smiled, "even if you went to help him out you're running on whatever comes after fumes, Shikamaru, and my guess is that the last time you _think_ you slept and the last time you _did _sleep are two entirely separate occasions."

The weary Jounin smirked, "All right, all right . . . I guess I'd better try to get some rest before these bags under my eyes become permanent."

"Too late." Emiko lied, then seeing the mild concern on Shikamaru's face added, "Just kidding of course, you'll be fine with sleep, and my guess is that you _will _sleep, even if you don't mean to."

"Great, you've basically just said that Temari is going to put some kind of sleeping medication in my tea." Shikamaru smirked, "Such a troublesome woman I married."

Emiko just smiled, for Temari-san's sake she didn't tell Shikamaru that it was the fruit juice that they'd be drinking with dinner, Emiko guessed Temari-san was hoping the kids would go to sleep early too.

But it wasn't anything that would harm anyone of course, and Shikamaru could use the sleep so Emiko didn't say anything to spoil Temari-san's plans.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	20. Women of Suna

**Chapter Nineteen**

Temari yawned, sitting at the table watching her husband, who'd fallen asleep at the table.

Potent stuff that sleeping potion Ino had made for her. Then again, it was Ino; who knew plants better in this town?

Shikaru was asleep too, but Sumiko was still awake, she hadn't drank any of the juice.

So Temari took the chance to spend some quality time with her daughter.

"How have your studies been going?" Temari asked the official parental opening question.

Sumiko didn't answer with words, she just made an "OK" with her hand.

"You're not worried about me and your dad are you?" Temari asked.

Sumiko shook her head, and sort of mumbled, "Protect everyone."

Temari smiled, "Yes we will."

"I will." Sumiko said.

Temari smirked, "Going to be a ninja someday?"

Sumiko nodded vigorously, but didn't speak.

Temari watched the little girl, it amazed her sometimes how much Sumiko had grown.

To think the girl started out as some tiny little thing inside of her own body. Now Sumiko just kept growing, So did Shikaru for that matter, it was amazing to her.

A human being, a human life. How many had she ended? How many men and women who'd themselves started out as tiny little things inside their mothers and grown from infant to child, from child to adolescent, from adolescent to adult . . .

How many mothers' sons and daughters had she killed?

How many more would she kill?

It was a sobering thought to realize that every life she took was a life. She'd always known but having children of her own truly drove it home. On the battlefield it didn't matter, they wanted her to die she needed to defend herself and she would continue to fight and kill.

Still she knew someday it could be her turn. Or it could be Sumiko's.

"Is there anything else you'd ever want to be besides a ninja?" Temari asked.

Sumiko shook her head.

Temari smiled slightly. She would be concerned about Sumiko no matter what the girl decided to do really. Besides she was just a child, she had plenty of time to decide how to live her life.

And part of the reason Temari and Shikamaru were going to fight the war was to make sure their daughter and son had a free world to grow up in, not one ruled by a psychopath.

She just hoped that more mothers and fathers realized what was at stake, what was being risked by letting Orochimaru's empire continue on. She hoped more daughters and sons realized what they were doing in supporting Orochimaru.

She didn't believe that good and evil were perspective, at least not when it came to Orochimaru.

_His_ evil needed to be wiped off the face of the earth.

She didn't care how many people she had to kill to make that happen. She recognized that such thinking was a sort of evil as well, but even so against Orochimaru she would be good or evil without caring; all that mattered was that she won.

She smiled at Sumiko, at her sleeping husband and son as well.

They were her reason. She'd do evil deeds for their sake.

What was Orochimaru's reason?

Kabuto at least seemed to do everything he did out of devotion to Orochimaru, and that devotion, while misplaced, at least helped Temari understand where the man was coming from.

What drove Orochimaru? Could anyone know? Could Emiko even guess that? Could Shikamaru figure it out?

She frowned.

What if the reason Shikamaru was suddenly working himself to death to stop Orochimaru was because he couldn't figure it out? If he'd spotted something that he, with his genius just couldn't understand or predict . . . would it scare him this much?

Was he afraid?

Could her husband really think he might not be smart enough? She'd heard him kick the idea around but he never sounded serious.

She closed her eyes and put her head down on the table, even though she wasn't going to sleep.

It sickened her; she was a proud kunoichi, the daughter of the previous Kazekage and the sister to the current. She had been a Jounin for the better part of her career, she'd been killing since she was a child and she'd fought numerous battles against the enemy she'd soon be facing again.

But the mere thought that her husband was scared also scared her. She shouldn't be scared at all. Wary maybe, but not scared.

She always thought that when it came to her relationship with Shikamaru their roles would be almost reversed; he would be the househusband and she'd be the brave and daring wife. Yet on the island retreat she'd come to find more and more that she was relying on Shikamaru to be her rock, his mood seemed to have a direct effect on her own mood, his concerns became her concerns and worst of all the idea of being in separate invasion corridors all but terrified her; she wanted him with her during the fighting.

She hated to think that she was that reliant on anyone, even her husband. She doubted that he was intentionally trying to manipulate or control her, and she wouldn't be surprised if he felt the same as her on a lot of these issues.

It didn't change the fact that she'd always pictured herself as strong and independent and now instead of an individual she was a member of a family . . . and she didn't mind nearly as much as she felt like she should.

It bothered her without bothering her. She was happy to be his wife, to have his children, and yet a part of her kept insisting that this wasn't how things were supposed to work out, these three people she loved so much were a major chink in her emotional armor just as she didn't doubt she was in theirs.

They were about to fight a war against someone who would not only notice that but have no reservations at all about exploiting it.

Had she made herself weak? Had she and Shikamaru accidentally engineered their own downfall?

She glanced across the table at Sumiko who was getting up to leave.

The little girl just smiled at her and said "We'll win."

Temari smirked. _We? Who's we? I'll end this war myself before you're old enough to fight it._

Then she considered the drawing Sumiko had made and the way she'd reacted to her parents' mild praise.

Something about that seemed irregular, she'd been more ecstatic than Temari could remember her ever being over any picture she'd ever drawn.

Did Sumiko think that she was expected to fight too? No, it wasn't that, there was something else . . .

"Sumiko-chan, is there anything you want to talk to me about?" Temari asked.

Sumiko giggled, Temari had to admit, it was kind of a stupid question since Sumiko didn't seem to ever want to talk very much at all.

The girl just went to her room, Temari sighed and decided she should probably do the same, it was getting pretty late after all.

She couldn't leave her husband and son asleep at the table though, she moved Shikaru first since he was small, then decided rather than try to move Shikamaru she'd just put a blanket over him and call it good. She didn't want him waking up and then refusing to go back to sleep after all, even if it was uncomfortable rest he still needed rest.

* * *

Kyoko smiled slightly into the mirror, the mark was almost completely faded today.

She wore her forehead protector around her neck anyway; it wasn't completely gone after all and though it probably wouldn't be noticed under the collar of her flak jacket she didn't want to chance it.

She felt . . . good.

The news that Kotaro was a member of the Sound Five--their _leader _it seemed--did concern her and he'd have to pay for the crimes he was committing, but it was good to know he wasn't being tortured in some prison, and once he saw her . . .

She smiled weakly, the thought that Kotaro would drop what he was doing and rejoin the alliance just at the sight of her was a bit too optimistic, if he wanted to or was capable of leaving Orochimaru he would have done it by now.

But she was certain something had to be forcing him to stay on with Orochimaru, and if she could find out what and help him . . .

_Don't make it a fantasy, _she thought, _keep yourself in the real world._

But still her mark was fading again, Kotaro was being well taken care of, and all that troublesome work for the first exam of the Chuunin Exam was done; all she needed to do now was hold the actual exam, and that was another few days away.

She didn't have any duty today, she'd thought she might help Naomasa as best she could. She knew nothing substantial about fire Jutsu.

She left her house and immediately noticed the person waiting for her across the street.

"Are you waiting for _me_?" Kyoko asked, even though she knew there was no other reason Yomiko would be waiting for her.

"Yeah . . . I wanted to talk to you . . . girl talk." Yomiko said.

"Fine, talk as we walk." Kyoko said.

"And where are we going?" Yomiko yawned, "I thought you might want to have breakfast together."

"And here I thought you liked Naomasa." Kyoko said dryly.

Yomiko rolled her eyes and said "If that's your attitude I won't give you the flowers I bought you."

"That's fine, Suna girls don't like flowers." She smiled slightly and Yomiko fell in to step besides her, "I guess you're going to help Nao with his Jutsu then?"

"I have just as much reason as you do to want it to work, so I thought I'd do whatever I could."

"Yeah, I'll help him too, as best as I can. It's kind of funny, I wanted to train with Nao but I didn't think it'd be so vital, I just hoped I could get to train alone with him to get him to feel for me what he feels for Hitomi-san."

"Is that supposed to be a subtle hint that you don't want me around Nao?" Kyoko raised an eyebrow.

"No! Didn't I just say the training is more vital than I expected? I just thought it was funny how something that seemed so important before doesn't matter now . . . I mean getting Kotaro back is more important than getting Nao to stop liking Hitomi-san . . . I guess I'm not very used to talking to you."

Kyoko shrugged, "It goes both ways, I'm not very used to you talking to me either," the older girl said, attempting a joke.

Yomiko said "The thing is though . . . I mean . . . Kotaro leading the Sound Five . . . why are we bothering to make a Jutsu to incapacitate him?"

"What do you mean?" Kyoko asked calmly, Yomiko's tone didn't suggest that she meant to simply kill Kotaro so Kyoko took no offense from it.

"If we could contact him we'd have an inside guy, wouldn't we?" Yomiko shrugged, "We could have that much easier of a time toppling Orochimaru."

Kyoko shrugged, "I guess. We'd have to see Kotaro-kun first though, and we don't know why he's leading the Five, he might actually be loyal to Orochimaru."

"That's not something I want to believe, I'm surprised you would." Yomiko said.

"We need to be prepared for the worst." Kyoko said.

"But it really drives home the point you know? If Kotaro is working for Orochimaru who knows who else is? We might have to kill people we used to know, used to call our friends. Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll do my duty," Kyoko said without hesitation, "I can't be selfish, even if it meant losing Kotaro-kun. I'm a Sunagakure Special Jounin trained by Temari-sensei herself, I have to do what my village and my Kazekage require of me without hesitation."

"Sure, I guess." Yomiko said, "I guess apart from Kotaro it isn't like anyone I know would be on the other side so I'm probably worried about nothing, but still . . ."

"I know . . ." Kyoko admitted, "but we're ninja, we're tools of our villages."

"But we don't have villages anymore." Yomiko said, "this place could be more than just a sanctuary if we let it."

Kyoko stared at her.

What the heck was she talking about?

Yomiko, realizing she was on the spot, said "Well I mean . . . a brand new ninja village, built right here. We've spent so long together and we're so weak individually that Suna and Konoha might as well just merge and start a new village. If the Great Nations wanted ninja villages anymore they'd have done more to protect them in the wars."

"That's not for us to decide, the important thing now is stopping Orochimaru, after we do that we can see what kind of a position we're in. I personally don't think we're weak. Konoha and Suna that is. We might be low on manpower, but we're overloaded with sprit and battle lust. We want to go to war, we want to win. We want it more than the other nations. don't you think?" Kyoko shrugged.

Yomiko smiled slightly, "You're pretty optimistic aren't you?"

"Today at least." Kyoko admitted.

Yomiko's smile became a bit wry, "Maybe we should have spoken more often."

"Nothing to say before." Kyoko shrugged and the two girls walked on towards the part of the woods where Naomasa usually trained.

* * *

Sachiko stood in her garden watering her flowers.

They didn't really have flower gardens in Sunagakure, the desert was a lousy place for them.

But ever since the war ended Sachiko had been able to enjoy flower gardening in her little home.

She lived in a village in the woods of The Lands of Sound near the border to the Lands of Wind. Kankuro hadn't wanted to go back to Wind until his brother was ready to retake it.

She'd devoted her entire life to Kankuro since the war ended.

He didn't seem to care.

She did everything she could for him, even using what little clout she had left with Lord Kabuto to allow the former Suna Jounin to live under her "protection" in lieu of staying in hiding in Kumo or being a rogue in Wind, though it hadn't been easy to convince Kabuto that she'd failed to assassinate Gaara, rather than the truth which was that she had not bothered to try.

But Kankuro didn't seem remotely grateful for her pains and efforts on his behalf, not that she blamed him.

She loved him with all her heart, and would spend the rest of her life trying to make up the fact that she had helped Kabuto overthrow his home village and stage the--thankfully failed--assassination attempt of his younger brother which almost resulted in Kankuro himself being killed.

When she'd proposed buying a house together with what was left of her money--her uncle the Daimyo was no longer around to offer handouts and she was no longer working for Kabuto--Kankuro had agreed and for a little while she'd believed that just maybe she had her darling "Kan-kun" back.

But she didn't.

He'd come along, it seemed, just to be out of Kumogakure, a place he said "was fine for the Leaf, but too far from home"

Sachiko had done a lot to distance herself from the woman who had betrayed her fiancé's ninja village in order to try to get Kankuro to like her again, even going so far as to go by her birth name of Sachiko instead of the fanciful moniker "Syako" since that was a name she now more or less associated with her past life a s a spy.

But still the only times she felt like he wasn't ten seconds from snapping her neck was when she was alone in her garden.

Those were the only times she felt peace anymore, and she hated that.

She loved Kankuro, why did he have to hate her so much?

The garden was in the front of their little house, so when the horsemen came up the road Sachiko saw them.

They had the banner of the Shogun, Sachiko bowed, waiting for them to pass by.

But they didn't, instead they stopped at her house and their leader, a samurai leapt off of his horse.

His three companions came as well, two carrying spears and the third with his hand on the hilt of his katana.

Sachiko hesitated, "Is there like . . . something I can help you gentlemen with?" She asked as they stomped towards her, she paused when they trampled some of her flowers.

"We come for the war criminal Kankuro, he has been confirmed hiding in this location."

Sachiko scoffed, which was a dangerous thing to do to a Sound Samurai but she did it anyway.

"Like, pardon me?" She demanded, "Kankuro is not hiding, he is residing with the Emperor's pardon for his war atrocities!"

"Atrocities" such as defending his nation and being one of the main reasons that that Gaara wasn't dead. Sachiko had to play their game, if they called Kankuro a war criminal he was one, but he was a _pardoned _criminal.

"He can tell it to the Shogun, ma'am. You have no rights in this matter, do not impede us."

Sachiko scowled, the lead Samurai was about her height which made him pretty short since Sachiko herself wasn't all that tall.

She waved her long red hair over her shoulder, something she tended to do when she was irritated in the hopes that Kankuro would see it and know not to get involved.

She said coldly, "Listen to me, _little man_, I have served my Lord since before you knew he existed, I was all but the conqueror of Sunagakure, _I _am one of the Shogun's most trusted advisors," she said, and it was all true . . . once upon a time, "a word from me and like, you'll be hanging by your own entrails from the gates of the divine city, now _get out of my garden_." She said the last part in a very acidic tone.

The samurai scoffed, she saw his hand reach for his Kanata, but she didn't see the two spearmen both move to impale her from behind the cover of their commander.

She yelped as the spears stopped millimeters from striking her abdomen, Kankuro's puppet had all but appeared between them and it blocked the swipe from the Samurai which had been meant to take her head off.

The puppet called Crow rattled and opened its mouth, a green no-doubt poisonous mist began to emerge and the Samurai stumbled back.

"The lady told you to leave her garden." Kankuro said, twitching the one finger he needed to control his puppet.

He was dressed in civilian clothing and his face wasn't painted--though he had once said that all of his old gear, including the face paint was stashed away waiting for his brother's battle cry.

Still, even though he didn't look like a Jounin who could slaughter all four of the samurai they knew it was best to back away from the garden.

Sachiko clicked her tongue in frustration when she saw more horsemen riding up the path, but what really surprised her was when she saw a column of spearmen running along the road as well.

Just how many men had they send for Kankuro?

The Samurai in command said "I'm not an idiot, I know that even with this force I'd lose a lot of men trying to take you and there's no guarantee I'd be able to take you alive, but if you want this woman to go on living you'll come with us quietly. Surrender or she, and this entire village will burn."

**To Be Continued . . .**


	21. Exit Sachiko

**Chapter Twenty**

"I don't care what you do to this woman," Kankuro said simply, "she may be my landlord, but she means nothing to me. Nobody in this village matters to me, so why not let them go?"

Sachiko didn't know if he meant what he was saying or just trying to get the soldiers to back down, but it made her heart feel heavy hearing Kankuro talk about her that way.

Not that she wasn't used to it after four years.

"Surrender and nobody has to get hurt!" The Samurai declared loudly, so that the growing crowd of people would hear and lend their support to his own voice, "Tell him people! Tell him to come quietly so that we do not have to make an example of this entire village."

Quite the opposite response however, four of the people in the village stepped forward.

"Actually," One of them, a young man dressed in Wind clothing with a mask wrapped around his face declared, "we were thinking he'd be better off coming with _us_."

Sachiko felt her heart stop. Had the Shogun sent _ninja_ to get Kankuro? Why? What had he done?

But Kankuro laughed, "Well well, look what the dog dragged in."

An old woman emerged from the crowd as well, she seemed frail, but Sachiko had seen her _somewhere _before.

She stood up straighter suddenly and her age seemed to melt away, she looked younger and younger and then . . .

Sachiko was staring at the former Fifth Hokage of the Leaf village . . .

"Gentlemen, if you please," Tsunade said, "this village was doing quite nicely before you showed up. Why don't you pack it up and get out of here? This is Fire territory again."

The Samurai gawked, "Ninja? Here? What is this?"

"Oh I dunno, an uprising?" The group's other female member suggested.

"Rebellion." One of the other ninja, a man with spiky black hair and dark glasses suggested.

"I'd settle for "total butt whupping" personally." The first ninja said, pulling his mask away revealing two red tattoos on his face.

Sachiko shrank back in fear, these were powerful Leaf ninja . . . and they'd probably just heard her boast about being in Kabuto's good graces. Would they really believe now that it had been a lie?

Would Kankuro stand up for her?

"Y-you won't get away with this!" One of the spearmen shouted, and rushed for Kankuro.

Sachiko screamed, but Kankuro just dodged the man and struck him sharply in the back of the neck as he passed by. The lead Samurai raised his katana and shouted "Burn the village!"

Tsunade rushed forward and before the word "village" had fully escaped the man's mouth his head had snapped back sharply, courtesy of her fist.

According to legends a punch from the Fifth Hokage should have been fatal but instead the man was just knocked back.

Maybe she didn't want him dead.

Sachiko wanted to stick by Kankuro but she was also afraid of being in his way.

The six ninja went to work on the samurai and soldiers, the townspeople fled to their homes.

Kankuro could fight from a relatively stationary position since he only needed to manipulate his puppets so Sachiko stayed by Kankuro's side until he roughly shoved her away.

She didn't see the arrow that would have struck her in the chest if he hadn't shoved her, all she registered was his continued hate and rejection when he shouted, "Can you be anything _besides _in the way? Go hide under your bed if you're going to be worthless!"

Worthless? He'd nevercalled her _that_.

He . . . knewbetter . . . she _thought _he knew better anyway.

Tears came to her eyes and her lip curled in contempt. She _thought _he loved her too, but he'd spent years now proving that wasn't true. She thought he was the one who'd _always _saw that despite what anyone else said or thought she was probably the most useful, intelligent, cunning person in the whole world . . . he used to treat her like she was anyway.

"To hell with you, Kankuro." She whispered, "I'll _show_ you what I'm worth."

Even though she'd whispered it, even though a battle raged around them Kankuro's head still snapped towards her as if she'd slapped him when she spoke and he looked at her in a mixture of irritation and confusion.

She turned away, not wanting him to see her tears as she got to her feet. It seemed a whole battalion was engaging with the ninja now; she was going to be a burden to whichever side didn't try to intentionally kill her.

She moved towards her house and spotted two men running for the horses, one of them was the second spearman from the original group of Samurai, the other was just a soldier but he leapt onto one of the horses anyway, probably figuring he had a better chance on its back than he did on his feet.

The two were right, running was their only chance. The Leaf ninja and Kankuro would finish off the rest of their cadre soon enough, the only certain survival for them . . . and for her, was retreat.

She bit her lower lip.

Kankuro didn't love her anymore . . . and his comrades wouldn't treat her fairly . . . Gaara had known she was a friend but she remembered nobody had known where the Fifth Hokage was; this old woman and her no doubt Jounin body guards wouldn't know she was an ally, and they must have heard her so loudly declare her membership in the Sound Organization . . . and Kankuro thought she was worthless, he probably wouldn't even bother mentioning that she'd joined with the rebels in the end.

_Go hide under your bed if you're going to be worthless . . ._ she clenched her fists and broke into a run.

She _wasn't _worthless. She was smart, she was strong, she'd endured physical and emotional pain in the war just as any soldier. Maybe she wasn't a ninja, but she wasn't a nobody either.

She was a Samurai woman born to a noble house, compared to her ninja no matter how talented were just low born peasants. With each step her resolve solidified; she recalled the cruel things people had said behind her back, thinking she didn't hear them or the condescending tones they'd used and how perfectly she'd played her part all the same. Could a ninja do that? Even if they could, could they do it as well as she did?

She ran after the Samurai and without a thought to proper ladylike behavior grabbed the spearman by the belt and pulled herself onto his horse, "Take me to the Shogun and you'll be rewarded. You heard me before; I am Syako, one of his favorite agents."

The man didn't argue, he just whipped his horse and together with his comrade rode for his life.

Syako glared over her shoulder, the battle was almost over . . . there weren't enough soldiers left to hold out long enough to cover their escape, she wanted to shut her eyes and pretend she was someplace else, not riding on the back of a horse that may or many not save her from a roving band of enemy ninja.

But she kept her eyes on them. She couldn't be a coward now.

"If they let us go it's because they want us to survive," Syako said, "if they want us dead we're like completely dead."

"I know!" The samurai growled, "I could always lighten the load!"

"Discard me and you'll be explaining to the Shogun why you, a Samurai, escaped from an honorable death when the rest of your cadre did not. When we reach the capital a kind word from me can see you forgiven, or forsaken, treat me very carefully." Syako said, a little surprised at how quickly, how _naturally _she was returning to her old self . . . her true self.

She wasn't Sachiko an exiled highborn living out her days with her ungrateful peasant fiancé in a quaint little village.

She was Syako; noblewoman, spy, saboteur, she could go on.

Kankuro . . . she'd thought she could spend her entire life accepting his disdain, she wanted to devote herself to him completely . . .

He was once the only person who saw her intellect behind the mask of stupidity she wore as a spy; he was once person who came as close to knowing the real her as anyone ever had.

Now he _dared _imply she was useless? To just shove her away like trash?

She'd show him just how useful she was.

She'd show him just like she'd shown so many others before.

She was Syako, agent of Sound, favored follower of Kabuto.

And he would regret casting her aside after all the tolerance and patience she'd shown him.

She'd show him.

She'd show everyone.

* * *

The last man fell to the ground and Tsunade said "Looks like that wraps it up. We let some of them escape, right?"

"Yeah, couple of horses." Kiba said.

"And just how the heck did you guys know to be here?" Kankuro demanded.

"Actually we didn't. We saw this village and thought it might be a good place to restock but some villagers said that _you_ lived here of all people." Shizune said, "We thought we'd pay you a visit, invite you to join us in our mayhem."

"Mayhem?" Kankuro raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, hell raising," Kiba smirked, "letting those two soldiers go works out pretty well. Otherwise we were planning on burning down a few Serpent Shrines."

"Why? Are you guys _trying _to get this village wiped off the map?" Kankuro demanded, "These are decent people, in resisting you've doomed this entire village."

"Like hell we have," Kiba scoffed, "Isn't that right Shino?"

"We can't discuss it in the open," Shino grunted, "Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade nodded, "Shizune, Sai, take care of the populace, reassure them and clean this mess up. Kankuro, if you'd be so kind as to invite us into your home we'll explain our plan."

Kankuro looked around, he didn't see Sachiko anywhere.

Maybe she'd taken his advice and hidden . . .

He led Tsunade and the others into the house expecting Sachiko to come running and throw herself at him, to say how scared she was or something like that.

But she didn't. He supposed she might be in her room. He wondered if he should go say something to her, at least tell her that everything was safe.

But he didn't. He didn't know if it _was _safe for her, and he was still surprised at her.

He was pretty sure that she hadn't called him "Kankuro" since the day they met. She'd said the name in reference to him on rare occasions, but she'd never called him by it, to her he was always "Kan-kun" and he'd taken comfort in that.

In fact he could still remember the time she'd decided that was going to be his nickname. The Daimyo had introduced them, placing special emphasis on Gaara, like most people did, after all Gaara had already been the Kazekage then and he was the younger, more talented brother. The Daimyo hadn't even bothered mentioning Kankuro's name; it was just 'Lord Gaara, Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure and his older brother.'

Sachiko--or Syako since she'd already been going by that name then--had let her eyes dance briefly over Gaara, and then smiled at Kankuro. Kankuro's heart had flown then, most women were all about Gaara, apparently he was more of the looker between the two of them. Sachiko though, had had eyes only for Kankuro, and she'd asked him his name he was so surprised he stumbled trying to force it out of his mouth.

She'd said it once, shook her head and latching onto his arm declared him 'Kan-kun' and she'd pretty much been his girl ever since.

Kankuro was loyal to Gaara, he loved his brother and he didn't wish any sort of misfortune on him . . . but having a woman choose _him _over Gaara had probably been one of the most triumphant moments of his life.

When he learned she was a traitor he'd thought it all made perfect sense. She'd known Gaara was a highly sought after husband so she hadn't bothered competing with his admirers, instead she'd singled out Kankuro as a way to get close to the Suna Trio, to become a part of Gaara's trusted circle and thereby doom Sunagakure.

He'd thought she never loved him at all, and he'd been furious.

But when they met after Konoha fell . . . part of him wanted to pretend she still loved him, and she'd gone about trying to prove that part of him right.

But the rest of him couldn't accept it. She was a traitor, she'd handed his home to the enemy, let good men and women die. She'd lied to him so many times he didn't know if she was just lying again. It didn't make sense to keep working on him when she could have gone to the exiled village and reported its location back to Kabuto . . .

He'd gone to live with her when she asked, thinking it was just another ploy on her part. Instead of living peacefully he'd been sneaking across the border to Sunagakure every few weeks looking for information and details on the families of soldiers and ninja who had gone into exile, leaving their families behind.

Even though an effort had been made to get as many of the families of the samurai and soldiers out of Wind as possible back when no one knew that Taisho Hirate's regiment had gone rogue only a single attempt to infiltrate Sunagakure through subtlety had been made and it hadn't yielded the best of results.

When the Emperor declared the war over and let people travel the country many of the families that Gaara and the others hadn't gotten out had migrated on their own to the lands of Waves or Lightning to seek out their loved ones and Kankuro knew that those that made it to Kumo were generally secreted away to the island--probably after some security measures were taken.

But there were other families that hadn't made it out and didn't go off looking for their ninja clansmen, Kankuro had decided to get them out of Suna and to Wave, which was why he'd gone with Sachiko.

He was almost ready to begin the move too, had his arsenal of puppets prepared and was going to make the strike within the month, he'd assumed that was why the soldiers had shown up, thought that he'd been turned in or that Sachiko had figured it out and betrayed him.

He'd been really hard on her, the truth was he didn't trust her and he thought the more aloof and spiteful he acted the more likely he could push her away and keep her from wondering why he was missing for a day or two at a time.

He went fishing a lot to further throw her off, but the truth was he enjoyed living with her, secretly he enjoyed her company.

But she'd called him by his actual name . . . had he done too good a job at pretending he hated her?

Had he made her _really _mad?

He knew he should search the house and find her, but he decided it would be better to let her cool off.

So he spoke to his fellow ninja instead.

"So tell me your plan." Kankuro said.

"Shikamaru, Gaara, Hinata, Suigetsu and Hattori will be launching a full scale invasion in roughly a week. If everything's moving properly Mist has already launched its fleet to meet up with our boys on the island then start towards the Land of Waves." Shino said.

"And I'd heard rumors that Lightning's army had launched for some unknown purpose." Kankuro nodded.

"If they're intercepted early they'll claim they're going to pay tribute to the Emperor and celebrate the anniversary of his ascension." Tsunade said.

"At least that's what their Raikage told Shikamaru they'd do before he sent me to find Kiba here," Shino reported.

Kiba nodded and said "So how about it? You're handy in a fight, want to help us out?"

"Our mission is to rendezvous with our forces in Waves, but instead of that Lady Tsunade has decided to create a diversion, we want to try to get Kabuto's attention, those horsemen should reach the capital in two days or so, if we continue to raise hell here on the Wind-Sound border line we may be able to get the Emperor to send a force after us, make him think that this is where the invasion force plans to land by seeming to secure a bit of coast for just such an event."

"It's a double edged sword," Tsunade added, "because if he treats this as the landing zone it'll lessen the forces he'll have in Wave or that he'll be able to send to reinforce them, and if he ignores us and we secure a good landing zone the boats can drop the troops off here instead and all it'd take is a single radio call, or failing that, Sai could fly out to the fleet."

Kankuro frowned; this meant that his decision to sneak civilians out of Sunagakure might just be unnecessary . . .

Or it might be even more necessary, "We need to hit Sunagakure then, get the remaining Shinobi families out."

"Why?" Kiba asked.

"It'll be a bigger distraction and it'll keep them from being used as leverage against the Sand ninja in the army." Kankuro said, "It might also send the message that we didn't want the families there as leverage, send a firmer message that the ninja are on their way and better force Orochimaru's hand. Since Sunagakure isn't training ninja anymore and just has a paltry Iwagakure garrison Orochimaru would have to move ninja from the capital to Sunagakure, which would both weaken the capital and keep those ninja from being sent straight to Waves to reinforce the army there."

"A move like that would take a lot of time and planning," Tsunade said, "I only have four ninja with me, we saved you on accident; we were in the right place at the right time. But raiding a city?"

"I've already gotten all the information needed, have contacts inside, I was going to go on my own but since you're here . . . well, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Kankuro shrugged.

Tsunade smirked, "All right, fine. If your plan looks solid enough we'll do it."

Kankuro smirked, "It's as solid as anything my brother-in-law ever came up with, you won't regret this."

"Especially if it helps us accomplish our mission." Tsunade shrugged.

And so it was done, Kankuro would raid Suna with the help of five powerful Leaf Jounin.

He didn't forget about Sachiko but by the time they were finished planning he was too tired, he thought me might just go to bed. He showed the retired Hokage and Shizune to the guest room and told the men to just sleep on the floor--it was a small house, there was just one guest room.

He'd just talk to Sachiko in the morning, before the group left.

The village would have to be evacuated before imperial soldiers arrived to burn it down, she could help with that. Since she was from authoritative blood she could be a really authoritative person when she needed to be.

He walked by her room, the door was shut and the light was out . . . he guessed she was asleep and didn't bother to say anything to her before going to his own room.

But he was grateful to her for albeit unwittingly--giving him the opportunity to prepare in advance for the plans that might save of the lives she'd endangered when she helped Iwagakure capture Suna.

And that was worth something.

Kankuro wasn't really sure what, but it was worth something.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **It shouldn't be terribly important but in case anyone is concerned the Chuunin exams weren't forgotten and they haven't happened off screen, nevertheless the invasion is set to occur very soon so due to that and the fact that nobody of import is competing in the exams they won't be an arc unto themselves like the last ones were.

Remember to review!


	22. Feelings

**Note: **This chapter accomplishes about half of the storytelling I meant it to, but it was going to be late so rather than not update at all I decided to leave you all with what was done and shove the rest into the next chapter. So here it is in all its imperfect glory . . . sorry.

**Chapter Twenty One**

The Prisoner sat patiently in a corner of his new cell.

He didn't know where he was, he and the others had been moved in the night.

Others . . .

There were a lot of prisoners . . . not all of them but a lot.

Maybe they were going to be set free . . .

Maybe they were going to be killed . . .

He was not stupid enough to really believe they would be freed though and he wanted to find _her_, so he couldn't let himself die yet.

So he waited.

He heard rumors from the guards but forgot most of them as soon as he heard them, all he could hold on to was the name "Hijiri Hitomi" and the memory of _her_, whoever _she _was.

He knew the one would lead him to the other.

But then how would he find something when he didn't know what it was? Was Hijiri Hitomi a man or a woman? Was _he _Hijiri Hitomi?

No, he was pretty sure that Hitomi was someone else, someone who knew who he was.

Yes, that was what he'd worked to remember.

Hitomi was not him, but knew who he was. So to find her he just needed to find someone who knew who he was.

He worked hard to remember anything, but one thing he knew was that he was being moved.

Usually at night, whenever he fell asleep he woke up in a new cell.

He didn't know where he was going, but there were always new guards and sometimes they talked.

They talked about a war with Lightning whatever or whoever that was, they talked about both _a_ Mist and _the _Mist, and how they might go to war with one or the other.

He didn't try to remember what _they _said, he just tried to remember what he needed to remember.

Hijiri Hitomi and _her _face, if he could find this Hitomi person or find the woman from his memories he'd find himself, he was sure of it.

If he could do that he'd be free . . .

But they--for he wasn't alone there were more prisoners, so many more prisoners--were treated little better than animals, in fact animals were probably treated better.

The guards fed him by throwing food-such as it was--through the bars of the cage, to drink he had to wait for a priestess who made the rounds through all the prisoners twice a day and only twice a day.

It seemed to lend credence to the idea that they were all going to be killed.

Somehow though he was pretty sure they were going to be set free, he kept hearing people talking about letting them loose on "the enemy" so . . . did that mean a prisoner exchange or something?

He didn't know . . . he just didn't know.

* * *

Naomasa fell back and leaned against a tree.

Kyoko sat down next to him on his left and Yomiko on his right. Kyoko was more interesting though because she had the _canteen_.

She took a long sip from it, both Nao and Yomiko watched her hopefully, expectantly.

She pretended not to notice and continued drinking until she finally raised an eyebrow in mock surprise and said "Oh? But you know I spat in it."

Yomiko scowled, "You're _so _feminine."

"Thank you." Kyoko said breezily, smirking until Nao snatched the canteen from her grasp. She sighed then and said "Yes, fine, if you want . . ."

It was Nao's turn to smirk as he took a drink and passed it to Yomiko who just shook her head, "No way, she spat in it."

"Tasted fine." Nao scoffed, "You're training with _fire _Jutsu, Miko, you can't get dehydrated."

"Duh, I _know _that," Yomiko rolled her eyes, "but I'm not drinking Kyoko's spit, no way! " She scoffed.

"_I_ did, it's fine. I probably got all of it." Nao suggested.

"Don't make me think about it!" Yomiko scowled.

Kyoko shrugged and took her canteen back from Nao, "Suit yourself."

Yomiko just sort of glowered for a bit, then said in a surprisingly sweet tone, "Fine . . . may I please have the canteen, Kyoko-chan?"

Kyoko shrugged and tossed it to Yomiko who caught it, opened it and poured the contents on the ground.

"What did you do that for?" Kyoko demanded.

"Like I said, I'm not drinking your spit. I'll fill it with _clean _water and be right back!"

Naomasa sighed, Yomiko set off, hesitated and said "Maybe Nao should go instead."

Nao scoffed, "You poured it out."

"_I'll _go." Kyoko scoffed too.

"No, no, you'll just spit in it again." Yomiko said. "Fine, Nao, come with me."

"No, I'm tired and thirsty and you're the crazy woman who poured out all our water, go on your own or let Kyoko do it." Nao scoffed.

Yomiko gave him an odd glare, then finally said "I'll be back before you know it so don't get _too _cozy."

"Yeah, because the woods are just _so _comfortable," Kyoko rolled her eyes. When Yomiko finally started to walk away Kyoko whispered loudly so that Yomiko would hear her, "I didn't even really spit in it, I was just kidding. Now she's got to walk all that way and back."

Naomasa laughed slightly and half closed his eyes, "Well it doesn't matter. Gives us a longer breather I guess . . . I want to get the Jutsu done and all but I don't want to kill myself doing it."

There was silence for a while as Kyoko failed to respond, then suddenly she said "Why don't you go with her? You know, just in case?"

"In case of what?" Nao asked.

"I don't know . . . serial killers." Kyoko shrugged.

Nao scoffed, "Yomiko will be fine."

Kyoko shook her head, "You really don't get it, do you? I guess she doesn't either. Pity."

Nao raised an eyebrow, "What don't I get?"

"Why should I ruin the surprise?" Kyoko asked with a slight smile.

Nao watched the older girl relaxing on the grass next to him, leaning against the same tree. She was very close to him physically and yet often she seemed far off mentally, as if she weren't really existing in her body but more sort of dreaming about existing in her body.

Or something stupid like that. It sort of reminded him of Kotaro, Kotaro had been perfectly at ease with the world it seemed, observing every event calmly, passively as if it were happening to someone else instead of himself. Maybe that was why the two liked each other, because they were kindred spirits of a sort? Or was this a newer development in Kyoko, something she did perhaps unwittingly to remind herself of Kotaro?

Anyway it made him curious as to what she saw, he asked "Kyoko-chan, do you have a minute?"

"I have until Yomiko gets back, then I need to drink an entire canteen and make her get more water on principal." Kyoko said.

"What principal?"

"Just principal, trust me when you grow up in a desert you don't just pour water out." Kyoko said.

"So to teach her not to waste water you're going to drink all the water when you're not thirsty?" Nao raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up." Kyoko said simply, and Nao smirked. He yawned and after a while Kyoko asked "So have you had a chance to talk to Shikamaru-sensei about your girl troubles?"

"No, I didn't want to waste his time with a lost cause . . . do you . . . do you think I stand any chance with Hitomi at all?"

"Nope. Maybe you should move on to greener pastures." Kyoko said lightly, Nao sighed, rolling his eyes.

"You know as a friend you're supposed to say 'sure Nao, she'll be yours in no time' or something like that." He told her.

"As a friend I had to tell the truth." Kyoko said lightly.

Nao sighed again, and they sat in silence for a few more moments before Kyoko finally said, "Okay ,okay . . . I guess I should be a little more helpful . . . Nao, do you know why you and I aren't a couple?"

Nao frowned, "I dunno, I never really thought about it . . . I mean you're Kotaro's girl for one--"

"Haven't seen him in years, didn't know for sure he was alive until recently, for four years now You've been free to make a move and despite working together often, sometimes alone late at night and at the peak of our adolescent sexual frustration you never did."

"Neither did you." Nao protested, not really sure where this was leading. Kyoko was talking about giving up on Hitomi and moving on, now she was asking him why he'd never hit on her? Was she trying to manipulate him into liking her?

"You don't see it, do you? You really don't see why we're not a couple?" Kyoko asked. She sat up and looked at him, "I mean look at us; we spend a _lot _of time together, I talk to you more than I talk to Yomiko. We talk like this about important and personal issues, a passerby would think we were a couple but we're not. Don't you realize _why_?"

Nao frowned. Kyoko was beautiful; she was tall, had long red hair, lovely green eyes and like she'd said they spent a lot of time together. . . but . . .

"Well . . ." He hesitated not wanting to hurt her feelings. The truth was--

"It's because we're not interested in each other, Nao," Kyoko said, stating exactly what he felt, "I mean romantically, there's just no spark. I liked Kotaro from the moment I saw him but you . . . well I thought you were cute but that's it. See Nao, we're friends, good friends and I trust you, I even love you . . . but I'm not _in _love with you."

"I didn't think you were," Nao said with a laugh, but Kyoko hit his shoulder.

"I'm being serious Nao, I'm trying to help you."

"Fine, fine, sorry . . . so what you're saying is that there's no spark between me and Hitomi?"

"No, there's a spark all right. From you." Kyoko said, "See what you feel for me is what she feels for you . . . she likes you just fine but she doesn't love you."

Nao frowned, "I love her." He said.

"Have you even tried loving someone else?" Kyoko asked quietly, "I mean . . . we're about to go into battle . . . finding someone who actually returned your feelings even if it were just so you could spend one day of happiness before all the misery reaches us again wouldn't be _that _bad would it?"

"I don't know . . ." Nao shrugged, he still wasn't sure why Kyoko was having this conversation with him, was she trying to get him to give up on Hitomi and be with her, or just give up on Hitomi? "I know some guys, heck some women are all for a single day of bliss without any sort of romantic feelings to muddle things up, but I'm not like that."

Kyoko frowned, she seemed worried for a moment then very quietly whispered, "Nao, do you know why you and Yomiko aren't a couple?"

Nao laughed, "That one's easy! She hates my guts, she's always trying to show that she's better than me."

"But you don't mind that Hitomi thinks she's better than you?" Kyoko raised an eyebrow.

"Yomiko thinks I can't do anything, she thinks I'm inferior because I'm not from a ninja clan, because I'm not an almighty Sarutobi like her." Nao said.

Kyoko smiled mirthlessly, "Yeah, she's pretty proud of her clan . . . but is it wrong to feel pride in your family? Don't _you _feel proud of being an Ishida?"

"Yeah but I don't try to make others feel bad about _not _being an Ishida." Nao shrugged.

"If Yomiko opened a shop tomorrow and started doing well wouldn't you think 'well she'll never do as good as us Ishida' even if you wanted her to succeed?"

Nao smiled slightly, "Shut up." He said, mimicking Kyoko's earlier rebuttal.

She laughed softly and whispered, "See? Sure she's more obnoxious than you might be in her place, but it's partially because she wants to be noticed. I mean . . . you're a prodigy, you saved her life, you killed the enemy that even Kotaro-kun failed to kill. And then of course there's Kotaro, the genius of mind and skill, the boy who could connect with a Chidori even though he didn't have a Sharingan . . . Yomiko has to feel like the low rung on the ladder, so of course she tries to show off. I think she does it so you won't think less of her as a teammate."

Nao shrugged, "But see she's my teammate, that's why she and I aren't a couple. I mean we're Special Jounin now so I guess we're not on the same squad really, and soon we may even be leading Genin squads of our own, but I'll still always see her has a teammate, just like Shikamaru-sensei and Ino-sensei."

"Ino-san . . . you mean the woman who married her other teammate and had his lovely children? Is that the Ino-san you mean?" Kyoko smirked.

Nao shrugged, "You just don't know . . . besides, you're the one who used to say that Yukio liked her."

"Yukio was fascinated by her but I don't think they had a real relationship . . . if you made a move Nao, I don't think he'd blame you, even if we did someday find out that he was still alive and well."

Nao shook his head, "But . . ." He couldn't quite phrase it right.

He didn't feel the same way about Yomiko as he did about Hitomi. It was . . . comfortable being around Yomiko. He could count on her to be a friend if a somewhat rude one at that, but seeing her romantically . . . he'd never given it _that _much thought.

Before he could really think on it though Kyoko pressed, "Why not just try loving someone else for a change? Afraid you might like it or something? Afraid it might be more _natural_?"

The way she said "natural" sort of irritated him, so he snapped without thinking, "No, just afraid I'd end up with someone like you."

Kyoko sort of glared at him, "We haven't been talking about me!"

"I know, we're talking about Hitomi and why I shouldn't like her because it's unnatural or some trash like that." Nao scoffed.

Kyoko shook her head violently, "You limit yourself by going after someone who's as likely to fall in love with you as I am, heck as Temari-sensei for that matter, or even Haruno-san!"

"So what you're saying is that once Hitomi is my wife you, and Temari-sensei and Haruno-sensei are all going to be my mistresses? I'm sorry, seems a bit much for me, I'm going to have to turn you down."

Kyoko just sort of shook her head in frustration and seemed about to carry on but before she could, and before Nao could apologize for pushing her too far--for though Kyoko rarely showed anger he could see she was showing it then--she grabbed her neck and shouted in pain instead.

"Kyoko!" Nao said, but she held up a hand, keeping him at a distance.

"It's nothing . . . bug bite . . . I'm fine . . . look never mind . . ." She said, talking slowly and taking deep breaths, "hunt for an . . . older woman who . . . doesn't love you . . . and already . . . has a child from . . . . somebody else if you want."

Nao frowned, "Look . . . you're right, okay? Hitomi and I, we'd never work . . . I know that now, okay? I was a kid before, I just saw something pretty and wanted it . . . I understand now how stupid I was." Nao grumbled, "My head is telling me 'move on' and I try not to think of her, try to avoid her, but I can't . . . any time I see her I forget everything and just want to talk to her or be close to her, you have no idea how I felt when I saw her on the dock, Kyoko. It was like . . . like the most relieved feeling I've ever felt, like somehow I was happier seeing her that moment than I've ever been. Happier than when I became a ninja, happier than when I made my first friends, happier than I was when I reconciled with my parents . . ."

Kyoko was very quiet, Nao whispered, "I know I'm an idiot, I know she can't love me, I know I'm not her type, I'm not her age, I'm not even her rank, she's ahead of me in every way and she probably always will be, she doesn't even trust me! I should hate her, I should want nothing to do with her, I should be able to see her for the unlikable bitch that she undoubtedly is, and there's a part of me that sees all that, thinks all that and then laughs because it just doesn't care."

He felt relieved and horrified by what he'd said. It was something he'd never said before because . . . well, he'd never had to say it. Nevertheless it was all true, he really had been insanely happy to see Hitomi, he'd felt like an idiot kid just looking at her. He did recognize all the reasons he shouldn't like her but whenever she was a round . . .

He'd had to force himself to stay focused enough to be mad at her and even then he'd cooled off much faster than he'd originally hoped to, he'd wanted to just scream at her the whole night, make her feel as miserable for leaving him as he'd felt for being left.

But in the end he just liked being with her . . . he knew they'd never work, knew she'd never love him because . . . why? Why didn't she love him?

Was Kyoko right? Was it just that there was no spark?

Kyoko smiled weakly, "Life's too short to obsess over a treasure you can't have, Naomasa. But you're my friend . . . just like Yomiko is . . . I wish you could both just be happy."

Nao frowned, "Say what? Is that why you were throwing her at me as a hypothetical girlfriend? Man were you off. Yomiko is about as likely to fall in love with me as Hitomi is."

Kyoko seemed about to say something, then shook her head, "You wish." She said.

Nao didn't think she meant that Yomiko was actually _more _likely to fall for him, his brain just never made that connection.

Instead he assumed Kyoko was conceding defeat and stating that Yomiko was even _less _likely to love him than Hitomi was, which to him was an acceptable compromise.

Kyoko just shook her head though, "I've probably done more damage than good . . . I shouldn't have said anything."

"You gave me some things to think about." Nao admitted.

"Pity you won't think about them." Kyoko said glumly. She got up, still holding her neck, "I gotta go."

"I'll walk you to the hospital." Nao said.

"The what?" Kyoko blinked.

"To have that bite looked at." Nao insisted.

"Um no, no way, I . . . I just need to go home, get some rest . . . I've had this kind of bite before."

"Let me see it," Nao said, reaching out for her but she batted his hand away and leapt back a step.

"No!" She gasped.

"You act like I'm going to snap you with a rubber band, I just want to see your grievous insect injury."

Kyoko forced a laugh, "I'm fine Nao, really . . . keep training, Yomiko will be back with more water soon, I'm sure . . . see, there she is now." Kyoko said, her eyes looking past him.

Nao looked over his shoulder, heard a "poof" and sighed knowing that when he looked back Kyoko would be gone.

He'd fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book, but how could he train knowing she could be in serious pain? She was his friend after all . . .

He shook his head, he knew what to do.

If Kyoko wouldn't see a doctor then a doctor needed to see her, and he knew just the one.

Yomiko showed up right then and he said "Come on, we need to find Endo."

**To Be Continued . . .**


	23. Loyalty

**Chapter Twenty Two**

Kotaro stared at the ceiling and ignored the repeated knocking on his door.

He thought about his role with the Five, thought about how hard it was to remember some things.

He thought about his mother and his father.

He thought about a lot of things, and ignored the knocking on his door.

It was probably Kasumi, it usually was. She'd get bored and leave or if it was important she'd have shadow stepped under the door by now.

He thought about war, he thought about peace, he thought about all sorts of things as he lay in bed staring at the tiles.

He thought about freedom and slavery, he wondered which he was.

It seemed an odd thought to have and then--

"Kotaro!" Kasumi said, stepping out of her shadow, which had moved under the door.

Kotaro sighed and glanced at her, "That took you a while; I thought you weren't going to come in."

Kasumi glowered, "I wanted to be invited."

"How discourteous of me." Kotaro grunted.

Kasumi didn't say anything for a while, and Kotaro took advantage of her silence to think about the Emperor and the Empire. He didn't really know what to make of it. It seemed odd not knowing how he felt about it.

After a while though Kasumi said "I needed your help with something, Kotaro."

"Well?" He asked.

"I wanted to ask you to do me a favor."

"Which would be?"

Kasumi hesitated, her black eyes may have been shifting around; it would have fit her body language.

But Kotaro had trouble reading her eyes. Because they were pretty much black orbs inside her eye sockets similar to how the Hyuga eye was almost completely white, Kotaro was never totally sure where Kasumi was looking and truthfully they looked soulless and a little frightening.

Kasumi then whispered "I need you to remember a name for me."

"Tell me why I should care." Kotaro demanded.

Kasumi whispered, "Because you're one of the Chosen Ones, you have the Emperor's mark, they would never harm you."

Kotaro raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Kasumi whispered even more quietly, "I need you to remember a name; I keep forgetting it and I think they want me to forget it . . . but I don't want to."

Kotaro glared at her, "Get out."

"Please!" She whispered, "I only trust you!"

"Then you're an idiot as well as irritating now get out!" Kotaro commanded. He didn't really like Kasumi very much but his own anger surprised him, he wasn't sure why the idea of her trusting him bothered him so much.

Maybe because he didn't trust himself.

Kasumi rushed towards him, trying to grab onto the collar of his shirt but he easily substituted and appeared behind her, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back he drew a knife and pressed it against her throat.

"Get out of my room." He said.

"Please, I'll do anything, I don't want to forget!" Kasumi pleaded.

"It's not my problem."

"Yes it is!" Kasumi hissed, "Don't you notice? Nobody remembers everything, what did you do yesterday? Don't remember? What about today? What did you eat for breakfast today?"

"Nothing, I never eat breakfast." Kotaro growled.

"Then what did everyone else eat?" Kasumi demanded, "Kotaro something's wrong and I just want your help before I forget that something's wrong!"

"What makes you think I can help you if I don't even remember myself?" Kotaro demanded, "What makes you think this is the first time we've had this conversation?"

"I just hope it is, okay? Now with your mind we can find a way to remember, please!"

Kotaro shook his head, "What game are you playing? Is this just another attempt to get me to care about you?"

She whispered, "You want to see your father don't you? Well . . . help me keep this name in my memory and I'll help you get to him."

Kotaro blinked, "I . . . what?"

Kasumi hissed, "I can walk under doors and though shadows undetected, I can get you to see your father, Kotaro. Just remember one little name for me?"

"What makes you think this is the first time you've asked me?" Kotaro asked again.

"I just hope it is . . . if it isn't it means I'm wrong and you're no better off than I am."

Kotaro glared, he wasn't sure what to think or do.

He just had no idea.

But it was worth a shot.

"What's the name?" He asked.

* * *

Kyoko squirmed a bit as Endo stared at her neck.

He felt her forehead, then shook his head and said "Well . . . all right then. Congratulations, you're pregnant."

"I'm what?" Kyoko whispered, confusion and horror weighing down on her chest like a ton of bricks. She shouted, "I'm _**what**_!? But I-I've never . . . had . . ." She shook her head, "I'm _what_?"

Endo smiled a little cruelly, "Nothing, I just love telling teenage girls that. It always gets an amusing reaction . . . except when they really are pregnant; then it's not as funny. But you're fine, I really don't see anything wrong," The doctor told her.

"And not pregnant?" Kyoko pressed.

"If you've really never had sex before it's incredibly unlikely that you would be." Endo said lazily.

Kyoko felt the panic in her chest disappear somewhat, but she still hated being examined. A small part of her wanted revenge on Nao for even thinking of it, worse for bringing a doctor who decided to give her the first pregnancy scare of her life.

_I should have realized it was a joke though, _she thought, but with the cursed mark who knew what Orochimaru could do to her body?

But her "bug bite" seemed to have brought Nao and Yomiko a little closer, at least they'd found Endo together, so it wasn't all bad.

But at the same time she sort of wondered . . . how did Endo, who'd traveled with Sasuke, not know anything was wrong with her neck?

She whispered to the doctor, "You really don't see anything wrong with my neck? Nothing?"

"No, nothing." The doctor said simply, "You seem like a healthy woman; honestly I'm surprised a bug bite would bother you at all, I'd imagine you have a high tolerance for pain."

"What, because I'm a ninja?" Kyoko laughed softly, guessing that her cursed mark must have gone invisible again.

"No, because getting a tattoo on your neck must have hurt like a--"

"Tattoo?" Kyoko squeaked, "You saw--"

"Well yes, it's not like it's invisible or anything. I guess you're not _supposed _to have it and that's' why you wear your forehead protector like a scarf? Well I was a rebellious teen once too, I won't tell your parents and your Sensei."

"Oh please don't tell _anyone_!" Kyoko whispered, "I can't have anyone knowing about this. Please promise me you'll just forget the whole thing!"

Endo shrugged, "You mistake me for someone who cares, really. You, the patient, will live so . . . I'm done here. Your tattoo is your secret so keep it, but it doesn't matter to me."

She hesitated then said "Um . . . wait . . . what if uh . . . what if it was the tattoo that hurts?"

Endo's eyes narrowed, "Are you serious? All right then, start with the length of time; how long have you had the tattoo and how long has it hurt?"

"I've had it since Kumogakure," Kyoko whispered, "please don't tell any--"

"I'm not going to tell anyone, how long has it hurt?" Endo demanded.

Kyoko sighed, "It hurts on and off again every few months, lately it's been acting up whenever I'm irritated or emotional and with the war coming . . ."

"I understand," Endo said. He shook his head and said "I doubt it's an allergy to the ink then, it might not be the tattoo but if the pain is central to the location something's not right. Let me remind you that I'm a surgeon, I don't know a lot about ink allergies or things like that."

"So what do I do then? Is there a medicine I can take?"

"I doubt it. See the person who gave you the tattoo and find out what was in the ink, see if you're allergic to any of it, though that wouldn't explain it hurting when you're agitated. There isn't' some magical curse on it, is there?"

Kyoko squeaked in panic but Endo's expression told her he was just telling another joke, so she forced a laugh.

He smirked ad said "Well anyway I think you're fine. I'll send your friends in to see you if you like."

"No, no," Kyoko said, "I wouldn't want them to see me like this."

"Like what? It's not like you're bedridden you just have some neck pain." Endo scoffed, "Not that I care. I'll just be going, unless you have any other problems--medical problems that is--to tell me about."

Kyoko just shook her head and said "I'll be fine, thank you doctor."

Endo nodded and walked out of her house but the moment he did Nao leaned in.

Kyoko wanted to shout at him to leave her alone but the look of remorse and worry was too much so she said "I'm fine, he says . . . now go away."

She didn't want him to think she was on her deathbed, but she still felt like being alone.

Nao nodded slightly, and said "I . . . if you need anything, Kyoko, just tell me, okay?"

Kyoko nodded, and then said "Thanks, now I think I want to sleep. Why don't you and Yomiko-chan go out and get something to eat together, you're probably starving."

"Yeah, okay," Nao said, "Do you want us to bring you anything?"

"I'm not dying, Nao," Kyoko laughed softly, "I'm just not feeling my best, I'll be fine . . . no leave me alone."

Nao nodded and smiled weakly, he turned away and left her alone just like she'd asked.

Kyoko's hand moved over her cursed mark . . . Endo thought it was just a tattoo, but most ninja would know it for what it was.

She'd gotten lucky.

She just had to hope he didn't tell anyone about it.

_Why would he though? _She wondered.

It wasn't like he'd have anyone to tell really, he barely knew anyone in the village. There as no way that Temari-sensei or Shikamaru would know about the mark, at least not from Endo.

* * *

Yomiko folded her arms when Endo came out of Kyoko's house, "She's okay." He said.

Nao nodded and went to the door, Yomiko guessed he felt responsible since he'd made Kyoko angry--Yomiko still wasn't sure _how_, it took a lot to make Kyoko angry normally--but she noted the slight smirk on Endo's face.

"What's so funny?" Yomiko asked.

"Oh nothing. Hitomi will be pleased though . . . I had a feeling about those two."

Yomiko realized what he was talking about, "What? Nao and Kyoko? They're not a couple, that's crazy."

"Not a couple yet, but they like each other." Endo said simply, "I could tell when I got here and she spent forever and a day interrogating me about Hitomi's intentions towards Ishida."

Yomiko frowned; she remembered that the night Nao had talked to Hitomi Kyoko had indeed been talking to Endo . . .

"So you think she wanted to know because _she _is in love with Nao?"

"Seems likely. Then again I know next to nothing about her and all I know about him is what Hitomi's told me. Maybe she was just looking out for his well being for a purely platonic reason."

_She darn well better have been, _Yomiko thought bitterly. She hated even thinking that Kyoko might secretly like Nao.

She trusted and had confided in Kyoko, if the other girl were secretly in love with Nao and just using her . . . it worried her.

Was she such a poor ninja that she'd failed to see the deception? And how many times had Sensei warned her about those things? She wondered . . . was Kyoko double crossing her to get to her man? Or at least to the man she hoped would be hers?

She folded her arms and glared at the doctor, "So what's wrong with her anyway?"

"Hmm? Oh she was bitten by a bug, just like she said." The doctor shrugged, and somehow Yomiko sensed he was lying.

He walked away without another word or waiting to see if Yomiko wanted to say anything else. She wanted to complain but Nao came up then and said "Well Kyoko says she'll be fine. Want to get some lunch together?"

"Together? Sure . . . I . . . I guess." Yomiko said, "Aren't you worried about Kyoko?"

"Sure," Nao shrugged, "But she says she's fine, a trained medical professional says she's fine, she must be fine. Let's go."

"Y-yeah . . ." Yomiko said.

She wasn't sure what had just happened. Had Nao just asked her out or was he just seeing if she was hungry? Was it both? Why would he suddenly ask her out? She felt confused, had Kyoko said something? Was she wrong for even suspecting Kyoko of wrongdoing? But then why had Endo said those things?

"Nao," She said with a sigh, "do you ever just really hate being a teenager?"

"Yes." Nao grumbled.

Yomiko smiled, and then she realized he probably meant that he wanted to be an adult so he could be with Hitomi.

But to her surprise Nao said "Things were so much simpler when I was just a kid. Back before I became a ninja."

"Oh." Yomiko said. "Yeah, I guess life just gets _more _complicated the older we get."

"I don't mind though," Nao said, "The complication makes it a little more exciting and besides if I stayed a ten year old rich kid my whole life I'd never have become a ninja or met Sensei or Kotaro or even you."

Yomiko nodded slightly, "So there's always good mixed in with the bad."

"Right, meeting Sensei and Kotaro was good, and then meeting you--"

"Choose your next words carefully," Yomiko warned.

"Um . . . was great." Nao decided and even though Yomiko was pretty sure that wasn't what he was going to say originally she smiled and gave him a slight shove.

But she still thought of her chief rivals.

Kyoko . . . if the doctor thought there was something between Nao and Kyoko maybe Yomiko wasn't being totally paranoid, maybe Nao and Kyoko didn't even realize there was something between them . . . or worse maybe they did.

Hitomi . . . if Nao didn't get over her he'd never be able to be with Yomiko, or if he found a way anyway he might be disloyal and that wouldn't be acceptable at all. Hitomi claimed that she herself wanted Nao to end up with Yomiko but how could Yomiko trust that? What if Hitomi was trying to play her?

She wouldn't be made a fool, she had to win Naomasa . . .

But how?

If this were a date it'd be a sign that she was winning, but since she was pretty sure they were just getting lunch as two friends she worried . . . did Nao not even realize that she liked him?

Should she tell him?

_I have to eventually . . . why not today? _She wondered . . .

But could she really go through with it?

Would she really dare?

**To Be Continued . . .**


	24. Aboard the Amagiri

**Chapter Twenty Three**

Sasuke watched the ocean roll beneath the might of the Water Country's navy.

A level of power that Sasuke could appreciate and even respect, the ships were strong and fast much like himself.

Juugo was sitting on the deck in quiet meditation, Karin was in her quarters or somewhere--the important thing was she was out of his hair--and Suigetsu was on the bridge talking to the captain.

Sasuke chose not to interrupt Juugo's meditation, and quietly observe the sea himself. Looking at the vast expanse of almost endless water the idea of naval combat shook the ninja just a bit. The idea that ships' entire crews would soon be in that water as their ships sank was sobering to say the least and Sasuke could not help but wonder whose crews would be drowning, whose ships would be sinking.

_Theirs or ours . . ._

Where was Naruto? What had he done? Had he been gone making a fool of himself hoping that Sasuke would solve all the problems in his absence? Or had he been getting stronger? He'd been--arguably--stronger than Sasuke before the war ended, how strong was he now if he'd been training all this time?

Sasuke hadn't been able to train. It was infuriating, he'd been picking up the pieces of Naruto's kingdom, looking for lost Shinobi while Naruto hadn't bothered to tell him anything about where he was going to be or when he'd come back.

He wouldn't know anything except the rumors he'd heard before coming to the island, Naruto didn't even think to find him before he went off on his journey.

Why should her serve Naruto as Hokage? Mist might just be the most powerful ninja village, and he was in a position to make that power his own.

He would still aid Naruto and Sakura in restoring Konoha, but did _he _have to live there?

To his surprise Juugo broke the silence between them saying "You're very tense, Sasuke."

"Don't say that too loudly, Karin might decide I need a massage." Sasuke replied dryly.

"You seem troubled." Juugo went on, sounding so calm it almost calmed Sasuke too, "You know now that the four of us are together again the war will go smoothly. We understand Orochimaru better than the Leaf village did, we'll be able to do more this time around."

Sasuke grunted in response, and thought that as long as Karin was a better strategist than Shikamaru everything should be fine. He was well aware of the fact that his pure skill wouldn't be enough to win this war; he needed good strategy to complement it.

Shikamaru was incapable of granting that or Konoha wouldn't have fallen, Sasuke didn't even _understand _how Shikamaru could have come up with the half-assed idea of actually _allowing _Naruto to transform to the nine tailed stage, even if they'd _thought _they'd found a way to control it and keep Naruto himself safe it was sheer stupidity to even attempt it.

All the time and effort spent depending on that plan and a real one to save the city could have been hatched. Sasuke would have armed the peasants, forced every man and woman and even child to carry arms and fight to the death and those who wouldn't would have been imprisoned like the traitors they were.

Victory at any price, so long as your enemy was dead it didn't matter what you lost, that had long been Sasuke's theory.

But Shikamaru had used the ninja and soldiers to shield the people, a raw resource ready to be tapped. Naruto had listened to Shikamaru only because Sasuke hadn't been there to disillusion everyone.

If he had his own village it wouldn't matter, his word would be the only important one and he could restore his clan as the supreme clan of Mist, not lackeys or servants, but the sovereign power.

After all, once Uchiha was restored what ninja could possibly stand above an Uchiha to wrestle the title of Mizukage away?

Sasuke had already been toying with scenarios of how he would overcome Suigetsu and had factored in the possibility of having to kill Karin as well though he was still certain that with some work he could make her his own loyal servant.

But what of Juugo?

Sasuke eyed the massive, muscular ninja, who had returned to meditating.

Sasuke wondered if he could secure Juugo's aid too . . . if he could do that Suigetsu would be finished, completely and utterly.

"We'll be reaching the rendezvous point in a day or so," Juugo mentioned without opening his eyes, "The Exile ships should arrive at roughly the same time, then it's full steam for the coast and the war."

"What about the Chuunin exams?" Sasuke asked in surprise.

"What about them?" Juugo asked.

"Aren't they going to be on the island?"

"Oh . . . no. We don't have time for that." Juugo shrugged.

"So what, they'll be on these ships?" Sasuke scoffed.

"Don't be silly," Juugo laughed, and Sasuke felt confused until Juugo explained "They'll probably have them on just _one _ship."

Sasuke supposed that made a bit of sense; hold the exams on the go so as not to delay the invasion . . .

But still, "So we have the Genin beat each other senseless before a major offensive with no time to recover?"

"I don't know what the proctors have planned, but given the timeframe I think it might be a trial by fire exam." Juugo said.

"A what?" Sasuke gawked.

"You know, the intellectual exam and the teamwork exam will be aboard the ships, and then likely the combat exam will take place during the actual fight. It's happened before, Trial by Fire exams were common during Mist's last few wars, or so I've heard." Juugo said.

"So Shikamaru really is an idiot!" Sasuke growled, though he hadn't meant to let the words escape his mouth, but since they had he elaborated, least Juugo think he was simply exaggerating; "In the middle of a battle he expects examiners to _grade _the fighters? We need every Shinobi capable to be fighting the enemy, not taking a test!"

"I'm only guessing," Juugo reminded Sasuke, "Besides a specific mission to take place during the fighting isn't out of the question, and the number of Genin likely to pass the first two exams wouldn't be too much larger than a small task force."

Sasuke shook his head, he'd have to talk to Shikamaru about this guess of Juugo's, because if it were to happen . . . so what?

Why did he care?

As Juugo said, sending prospective Chuunin on a specific mission during the fighting to test them wouldn't exactly be a bad thing, it might be crucial to success even.

And if Mist had been doing it in their previous wars it clearly worked . . .

He guessed it was just the fact that Shikamaru might have decided on the mission that irritated him, who said Shikamaru knew what a good target would be?

"If it's going to be a trial by fire exam they'd better consult us first." Sasuke decided. That would make more sense, Shikamaru wasn't an infallible genius. He should talk to Sasuke before launching any sort of special mission, especially one carried out by merely prospective Chuunin, not real Chuunin or a Jounin squad.

"Like I said, I'm only guessing." Juugo said.

But Sasuke disregarded the statement.

He knew Juugo had guessed right.

This time he wouldn't let himself be out of the loop.

He scowled and realized it might mean having to kiss up to Karin since she was Mists' strategist. Maybe get her to let him accompany her to a meeting with Shikamaru or a war council.

Either way this time Sasuke meant to be sure that Shikamaru's pipe dream plans didn't damage the entire war effort.

When Naruto returned Sasuke intended to have a long discussion with him about the people with whom he placed his trust.

* * *

Sumiko was beaming at both her parents, Shikamaru didn't really understand why.

The whole family was gathered around the table, though nobody was eating anything. Shikamaru was instead going over reports and maps, Temari was helping with the paperwork and the kids were drawing, though Sumiko kept looking up from her picture to smile happily at her parents.

"Did you have a good day today, Sumi-chan?" Temari ventured.

The little girl just smiled and very subtly nodded.

She probably wasn't trying to be subtle, but with parents who detected subtlety so easily she probably didn't have to be obvious.

Then again for being so talented at detecting subtlety Shikamaru couldn't quite put his finger on why his daughter was so thrilled these pas few days.

Still it would be a nice memory to hold onto in the coming days . . . weeks . . . months.

A mental image of his cheerful children . . .

Shikamaru glanced at Temari who shrugged.

He smiled and said "You know . . . I love you all."

Temari smacked him upside his head.

"Ouch!" He groaned, "Troublesome crone."

"Don't set a bad example for Shikaru! Real men don't get mushy." Temari said simply, "You want to show affection to your children then threaten Sumiko's boyfriends and punch Shikaru in the shoulder."

"You're insane woman, Sumiko hasn't _got _any boyfriends, and I'm not punching a three year old in the shoulder."

"I'm not telling you to knock him unconscious, I meant in an affectionate but manly way." Temari said dismissively.

Shikamaru shook his head, "I'll miss you too."

"We're going to be fighting the same war aren't we?" Temari asked.

"But you'll be with Gaara, I'll be with Naruto." Shikamaru said and prepared himself.

"What?" Temari demanded, "You said you'd have that _fixed_, I'm going into battle with _you_, Shikamaru!"

"Your brother needs your help more than I do." Shikamaru said calmly.

"Sumi-chan, why don't you and your brother go brush your teeth, hmm?" Temari said sweetly, but the look she gave Shikamaru was pure venom.

Once the kids had left--very quickly--she hissed, "I'm a Konoha Jounin now, Gaara will have Kankuro to watch his back you need someone watching yours!"

"Gaara doesn't need anyone watching his back," Shikamaru responded in an equally quiet tone so as not to upset the kids, he gripped Temari's hand and whispered "You need to be his tactician Temari, if anything goes wrong he'll need your plans to get him through."

"I'm going with you!" Temari said.

"You don't care about Wind?" Shikamaru asked skeptically.

"Not when the choice is between it and you!" Temari whispered, "Like you said, Gaara doesn't need anyone watching his back, and like I said if he does he's got Kankuro, _you _need me!"

"I do, huh?" Shikamaru asked with a smirk.

Temari settled down into her seat, still holding his hand.

She whispered "Besides, maybe . . . _I_ need you." She told him.

Shikamaru frowned, "You don't. You're strong, you can do this."

"I don't want to. Without you I don't want to." Temari said flatly, and that caught Shikamaru off guard.

Of all the things she might have said, deciding she _didn't _want to fight wasn't one of the things he thought he'd hear.

"Temari . . ."

"We've been talking about how we'd work on strategy _together_, now you tell me I have to be on a whole other front? No, it's not happening!" Temari told him firmly but still very quietly.

Shikamaru had to admit, he had an ulterior motive for sending Temari with Gaara.

The Kazekage would die a thousand deaths before he let anyone harm his big sister. Shikamaru would die ten thousand deaths before he let anything happen to his darling wife, _however _when it came down to it he had to admit that Gaara was better capable of stopping any danger that headed for Temari, and he really would need a strategist.

Shikamaru had wanted Temari by his own side but in the end keeping her safe meant too much to him.

He massaged his forehead with his free hand and then Temari said, "I need to be with you, Shikamaru, I can't be strong by myself."

"Maybe that's why it's so important that you do go with Gaara," Shikamaru told her, "if you honestly believe you're not strong by yourself . . . being married means that we _get _to be strong together, not that we _need _to be together to be strong. You're still as strong as you've ever been, the fact that the back of my head is still aching is proof of that."

Temari blushed; it was funny seeing her get embarrassed by her brash actions while she was trying to be vulnerable.

He looked into her eyes and said "If not you then who? Who can act as Gaara's strategist? Sakura? Neji? You're going into territory you've spent most of your life in, you grew up in that country same as Gaara, you'll know how to take it back, Shiho wouldn't have the first clue if Gaara took her instead, and Kankuro can't plan big strategies, you know that."

He squeezed her hand and whispered, "You know I love you, Nara Temari, if you really aren't equal to this task I'll tell Gaara myself that you're not budging from my side. So tell me honestly that you don't think you can do it, Temari."

Temari met his gaze, but didn't speak.

He smiled and leaned forward, lightly brushing his lips against hers, "It'll only be okay. We're going to win this one . . . in fact I'll race you. I'll be in Konoha a full day before you're in Sunagakure."

Temari forced a smile and said "Let's make this interesting then, first to conquer their hometown gets to name our third child."

"What third child?" Shikamaru scoffed.

"I told you I wanted three." Temari said flatly.

"I remember you _suggesting _a third, you never said anything about actually _having _another kid, that doesn't fit my plans at all."

"Oh I know all about your plan to marry a plain so-so woman and have only two kids, unless I'm plain and so-so I'd say your plans got screwed over so we're making changes!" Temari declared, lunging over the table to grab him as he tried to get away, now holding hands was a disadvantage.

"Now's hardly the time for this kind of talk!"

"It's going to be a girl and we're calling her Kiyomi!" Temari declared, grasping him by the collar.

"Only if you and Gaara get to Sunagakure before Naruto and I sack Konohagakure!" Shikamaru countered, slipping free of Temari's grip.

Sumiko and Shikaru had returned now and the little girl shook her head disapprovingly at the mess her parents had made of the table.

Temari smiled apologetically, "Oh uh . . . sorry about that sweetie, your father just made a really stupid bet that he's going to _lose_ is all."

"Only if pigs fly and Orochimaru teaches them to attack his enemies." Shikamaru smirked.

"Can he?" Sumiko's eyes widened in surprise.

"What? No . . . no, _probably _not," Temari said, she shot Shikamaru a look that asked 'can he?' and Shikamaru had to admit.

He had no idea _what _Orochimaru was capable of doing, what his experiments might have resulted in.

But in order not to worry his daughter he smiled and said "Don't worry, even if he did pigs know better than to serve snakes."

Sumiko smiled slightly, but she didn't look totally convinced. Shikamaru just hugged her and Shikaru, "No matter what Orochimaru sends at us we'll come back home. Your mother and I aren't even capable of being hurt; we're like the main characters of a legend. We're storybook heroes . . . your mom's book is three years older than mine though."

Temari scoffed behind him, but Sumiko said "Heroes die."

"_We _won't, Sumiko-chan." Shikamaru assured her.

"Definitely won't." Sumiko agreed with a slight smile.

* * *

"So what's your opinion of Sasuke-_sama_?" Suigetsu asked, using the honorific with obvious sarcasm.

Karin slid her glasses up her nose with her middle finger, knowing that Suigetsu would get the gesture, "Just as fascinating and powerful as ever, he's amazing really. The stick up his butt though . . ." She trailed off with a roll of her eyes.

Suigetsu smirked slightly, "And here I thought you'd have gotten that out of there by now."

"Not for lack of trying, he doesn't like me getting anywhere near his butt."

"Maybe if you stopped pinching it." Suigetsu suggested.

Karin raised her glasses again with the same gesture, "And here I thought you'd say "kissing" it."

"Come on, it's Sasuke-kun, he _likes _when people do _that_." Suigetsu said dryly.

Karin shrugged. "If you say so, I think you give him far too little credit."

"You give him too much." Suigetsu shot back, "And I don't trust him, not as far as I can kick him."

"Then why did you want him?" Karin asked.

Suigetsu didn't answer; he just folded his arms and shook his head.

Karin watched Sasuke on the deck with Juugo from the bridge of the ship.

He was such a handsome ninja, he looked as youthful and dashing as he had years ago when they'd met.

When they'd been teammates.

She folded her arms, mimicking Suigetsu and said "So what do you want to do?"

"Just get his trust; open up to him," Suigetsu said, then quickly said "Maybe that's a poor choice of words talking to _you _about _him_."

"Oh I don't know, I like that order." Karin smirked.

Suigetsu laughed, "Whatever, your love life isn't my concern but Sasuke's loyalty _is_. I'm the Mizukage, he needs to accept that . . . but I still want his skill, if you can think of anything to say or do to keep him from trying anything . . ."

"You'll owe me." Karin said simply.

"You're alive, we're even." Suigetsu said.

Karin shook her head and carried on watching Sasuke, "If he and I were an item he'd be loyal."

"To you maybe." Suigetsu scoffed.

"Well to me and the person I'm loyal to," Karin shrugged.

"Which would probably be him." Suigetsu scoffed again.

"All I'm saying is that if you can get Haruno Sakura out of my way . . . I can work properly on Sasuke-kun."

"What are you proposing?" Suigetsu scoffed.

"Nothing . . . what are you planning?" Karin asked.

"Nothing." Suigetsu said coldly, but Karin wasn't so sure.

The great thing about Suigetsu is that he never really needed much motivation, not when it came to getting rid of people.

With Sakura gone who would be around to carry on Sasuke-kun's blood if not her?

Karin smiled and said "I'd better go see him then, valuable flirting time is being lost."

Suigetsu said nothing, Karin wondered how he felt about really having the team together again?

Did he see it as a disadvantage? She'd been giving him enough grief, but Juugo was about as loyal and docile as she'd ever seen him, she suspected that Juugo and Suigetsu were about as close to being friends as any two people of their backgrounds could be.

Karin wondered what it'd be like to have a friend of her own.

Then decided it wouldn't matter.

Getting Sasuke hot and sweaty would be all the "friendship" she needed.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	25. Solutions

**Chapter Twenty Four**

* * *

Ryu watched the beauty of the green forests of the Lands of Sound pass him by. He wondered when he'd be back.

Life was beautiful if one just took the time to observe it, but far too many people chose not to do so. Ryu himself rarely got the chance anymore; he wondered if Yukio still knew how amazing the world itself was. Had he _ever _known?

Did Kyoko know? Did Sensei? Sensei had had a child; she must have felt there was _some _beauty in the world if she were willing to subject another human being to it.

Maybe Kyoko had had a kid by now too if she were alive. Ryu wondered whatever happened to her sometimes. He wished she'd been with them when Yukio joined Sound.

It would have made things easier for both him and Yukio to have another friend. Ryu had sort of accidentally bonded with Daisuke and Eri, but Yukio hadn't had that chance, if Kyoko had been with them maybe she could have helped to keep him balanced.

Ryu didn't know why he felt like he needed to be the responsible one, at least as far as Yukio went. When they were Genin Yukio had always been the leader; he was the strongest he was the fastest, the most talented. Back then it'd been Yukio who looked out for him and Kyoko.

Now Yukio was looking out for himself, Ryu was looking out for Yukio and failing at it, and nobody was looking out for Kyoko, except _maybe _Sensei if the two were together.

Orochimaru seemed to think that they were, or at least that an attack was coming and that it would be carried out by ninja from the Sand and Leaf villages.

The Lightning country had mobilized its army and Earth had been tapped to stop them, it really seemed like the rebellion boiling under the surface would finally happen.

And Ryu was seriously questioning his standing.

Continue to fight for Yukio who didn't seem to need or want his help or . . . or what?

What was the alternative?

Fight for himself? If he were honest then he would carry on fighting for the Shogun simply because he'd only seen a bit of how deep the roots of that tree went, and what he'd seen alone was enough to give him screaming nightmares for the rest of his life. He couldn't' imagine anyone defeating that evil; he couldn't imagine any human creature engineering that evil.

It was a sort of evil you just didn't mess with.

So he was afraid? Yeah, that sounded right.

But even so he didn't want to stop anyone who thought they could stop the Emperor and Shogun from trying.

He marched along with the other members of the medic corps as they escorted the cells of the prisoners observing the beauty of the world.

The world would exist long after he was dead, long after the Shogun and the Emperor were dead too.

Trying to change it was pointless, the Emperor held all the cards.

But even his incredible darkness couldn't completely overpower the beautiful green forest, the sound of the woodland animals, and the feel of the sunlight as Ryu walked with the other ninja.

Even if Ryu thought the Emperor was evil the world didn't care, and to the world the Emperor was just a passing thing.

* * *

Kotaro paced back and forth thinking furiously.

He and Kasumi were on the balcony, she wanted to be out in the open air and Kotaro had to admit it was helping him to think.

He wondered if that was why he liked the balcony so much.

He knew the name Kasumi wanted him to remember, and he felt like he'd heard it before somewhere but couldn't quite remember where.

He would have thought it wasn't important but Kasumi was adamant that the name was vital for some reason.

He didn't care so much, but he did want to see his father and remembering that that was the exchange Kasumi had offered him was worth trying to find a way for Kasumi to remember the boy's name no matter what.

No writing, that could be stolen if it were discovered, or even if it weren't Kasumi might forget the relevance of the name if all they did was write it down or find some way to tattoo it on her body.

And tattooing was a similarly bad idea because the Emperor would no doubt want to know why Kasumi had done it and if he had anything to do with their forgetfulness, which Kotaro felt was practically a given, it would do them no good.

Kotaro would have been out of ideas if he could honestly claim to have had any to begin with.

If they hid the information it became a matter of finding it, or remembering to find it, and if they couldn't do that there was no point.

It was impossible, and yet he was determined.

For some reason the thought of outsmarting the sadistic _thing _that had stolen his mother's body thrilled Kotaro. He wanted to be smarter than _it_; he wanted to see the answer that _it _wouldn't see.

He wanted to help Kasumi for his own purposes, it was selfish but it was invigorating.

Too invigorating to feel bad about not really caring about helping Kasumi for her own sake.

He thought furiously. There had to be an answer.

Then he thought about it . . .

He was thinking just a couple steps ahead.

What if he thought further?

Someone . . . someone used to be able to think hundreds of steps ahead, who was that?

Was it Kotaro?

No, no, if it were he wouldn't be having trouble now. Had it been his father?

No, not father . . . no matter, he was pretty sure this person had been real and if _they _could do it . . .

He began thinking further.

The Emperor's people found the writing . . . and then . . .

Or if they made a tattoo then the Emperor spotted that tattoo and removed it . . . and _then_ . . .

And then, and then, and then, he thought further and further ahead even along losing paths.

There _had _to be a way to win, a way to beat that creep, if he were going to save his mother and father he needed the answer . . .

He closed his eyes, he thought to himself.

This was so . . . troublesome? Why did that word come up suddenly? It reminded him of someone . . . who? Someone he used to know . . . respect . . . someone who was always wrapped in--

And then he felt as if he'd been hit in the face with a solid gold brick.

"I . . ." He swallowed hard, "I've got it."

"What?" Kasumi asked.

"I know the answer!" Kotaro gasped, "The shadows!"

"Um . . . what?"

"Your answer! It's in the shadows!" Kotaro laughed triumphantly, "You're a Hattori, the only Hattori around, your eyes can see through darkness into shadow, you can _become _a shadow, and when you're a shadow you see things others can't see, don't you?"

"No, I just see the same things in a different way." Kasumi frowned, seeming depressed.

"But that's what I mean! A message to you when you shadow step would have a different meaning than it would to anyone else, or even to us if we forgot about it. But if it's strong enough you can remind yourself every time you see it, every time you step!"

Kasumi's eyes gained just the tiniest sparkle, "What do you have in mind?"

Kotaro smirked, "I'll tell you my plan all right, but I won't help you implement it until after I see my dad."

"What if we forget?" Kasumi asked frantically.

"If they made us forget we'd have to assume they'd have caught us trying to see my dad which means you wouldn't have delivered on your end of the deal," Kotaro said flatly, "So until you do . . ."

"Fine," Kasumi scowled, "Tell me, but if this works I won't promise to use it to help _you _in the future, don't think there aren't things you'll want to remember too, Kotaro."

Kotaro smirked.

She'd help him. He'd thought ahead to that already. "Okay, for starters you have to write this message while you shadow step, it has to be visible and make sense to normal eyes with its true meaning coming across when you step."

"Okay, okay, fine, now _how_ do I write something that makes sense to both worlds and where do I write it? What do I write it on, how am I supposed to . . . oh of _course_. You won't tell me _any _of that, will you?" Kasumi glowered.

Kotaro smirked, "That's right. Not until I've seen my father. So? I'm waiting . . ." _And I'm sure he is too. _Kotaro thought.

* * *

Yuu thought to himself as Team Tosa fell in with the rest of the army for the day's march.

Their bandit prisoners already uniformed and shoved into one of the vanguard regiments--just to be safe they were under watch--and Chiwa was now an official fourth wheal on their team.

It showed just what a rush Raikage-sama was in.

Yuu had had a chance to see his brother-in-law, Konjo Takumi, it seemed his sister was doing fine and would be hating them for getting to fight the good fight while she was back home taking care of her growing brood.

He guessed Takumi must be worried. He was a top ranked Jounin, had been the Raikage's personal assassin for years until--briefly--defecting to Konoha, he'd seen a lot, done a lot and here he was marching off to war again while his wife was expecting their third child.

Yuu felt mildly relieved not having any kids of his own to worry about, not that he was completely closed off to the idea if he survived. In a few years it might be nice to have a wife and children.

As if she could read his mind, Tomoko, who'd been walking next to him reached out and grabbed his hand, she smiled one of those 'be brave because we're going to win' smiles of hers, and squeezed his hand.

He felt himself blushing and tried to give her a 'yes indeed we are going to win' smile, but he wasn't as good as she was at unspoken sentences.

He really didn't know what to say to her, but she seemed content not to speak, she just walked next to him hand in hand.

"Huh. You two a couple then?" Chiwa asked, bounding up next to them.

"What business is it of yours if we are?" Tomoko asked disdainfully.

"Well intra-squad romances really don't work. One of you could be in danger and the other might risk the whole mission to save them, didn't they teach you any of this? I think you two should, at the very least not be holding hands, I mean what if we were being spied on and that information reached the enemy? They'd know to get to either of you they'd just need the other."

Chiwa ran a hand over her shaved scalp, "I mean it's not like I give a wit what you two do after lights out or nothing but since I'm the lowest ranked fighter on the team and my life will be in your hands you two need to be ready to juggle, right?"

Yuu shook his head, he understood the metaphor Chiwa was using but that didn't make it any less unnecessary.

Tomoko however said "Ha, ha, and . . . nope, not funny enough for a third one. Jounin Yurei and myself are well aware of the risks, but sometimes a person just likes to take comfort in their friends. I could go on but what say I throw you that third 'ha' and you just trust in my juggling skill?"

Chiwa smirked, "I get a sympathy 'ha' do I?"

"More a pity 'ha' you don't have my sympathy." Tomoko smirked.

"Those words mean the same thing." Chiwa pointed out.

"No. As a writer I know the subtle difference between them. To claim I pity you is to distance myself from your misfortune; misfortune in this case your being unworthy of a third 'ha' and if I were sympathetic I'd feel your pain and want to make amends for that reason. Simply pitying you I feel little desire to make amends and offer you the 'ha' on the basis of severely lacking any sort of a damn to give."

Yuu and Chiwa both stared at Tomoko, but Kimiko-sensei laughed.

"What? You two don't get it?" Kimiko asked when she noticed that Chiwa just looked bewildered and Yuu's expression was probably equally confused.

Yuu didn't say anything, Chiwa answered for the both of them, "No?" She blinked, "I thought we were bantering then suddenly it's a literary lesson?"

"She _was _bantering." Kimiko-sensei explained without really explaining anything, "really you two didn't get it?"

"At least _you _got it, Kimiko-senpai." Tomoko sighed and Tosa placed a reassuring hand on the younger woman's shoulder.

Yuu looked helplessly at Tomoko but she just smiled and squeezed his hand.

"Well at least it's not 'cause I'm just a Chuunin, Yurei didn't get it either." Chiwa said lazily.

Yuu shrugged. Tomoko said, "You know Chiwa-san, these days rank doesn't mean anything. Just because you were a Chuunin before Oto took over doesn't mean you're still at Chuunin level. Having survived this long you must have become quite the force to be reckoned with, even if your memory is spotty. You're probably much more dangerous than you give yourself credit for."

Chiwa seemed to think then nodded, "Sure, I guess that makes sense."

Yuu on the other hand considered just how spotty Chiwa's memory was, and he glanced at Kimiko-sensei who very subtly nodded.

She'd again gleamed Tomoko's actual meaning and this time Yuu had too.

Despite the young woman being assigned to their team by the Raikage after light interrogation which had allegedly proven her innocence of being an Oto agent, Tomoko believed they couldn't trust Chiwa.

Yuu smiled slightly and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

* * *

Shikamaru watched the clouds drift over the two destroyers from the rooftop of his home.

They were being loaded up, the equipment and supplies for the journey, the armor and weapons for Akira's soldiers.

Sumiko was with him, she seemed intensely interested in the ships, but Shikamaru wrote it off as harmless.

She just wanted to see the big ships, he supposed. They were usually moored on the other side of the island in a cove so Sumiko hadn't seen them in full luster since she'd been a passenger at just over a year old.

Maybe she'd draw them.

It was almost an accident and only out of the mildest curiosity when he asked her "What do you think of the ships?"

"Big." She responded. As usual, she wasn't much for conversation.

Shikamaru smirked, "Those ships were made to fight even bigger ships and still get thousands of soldiers safely to the land."

"Uh-huh." Sumiko nodded, but didn't take her eyes off of the docks.

Shikamaru smirked. Sumiko liked to spend time with him but it was Temari she was really close to, she was almost the definition of "mama's girl" she followed Temari everywhere except when Temari did chores which Sumiko would declare "bother" and then spend time with her father.

But the girl hadn't spent a single day away from _both _her parents since Konoha fell. Shikamaru worried that Sumiko might get worried about abandonment or something, even if she seemed okay now once they life she might get worried.

He decided to say something to pick her spirits up and remind her that they'd be back soon.

"I don't want you to be sad when we leave on those boats. Your mom and I won't let anything bad happen, we'll come home safe and sound, you'll see."

Sumiko nodded, but didn't say anything. It was odd sometimes, not having her talk. Sometimes Shikamaru thought it'd be troublesome to have a child who talked too much, but one who barely spoke at all was just as troublesome.

"I don't want to hear that you had any nightmares or anything while we were gone, okay? We'll be just fine and we'll come home before you know it." Shikamaru said.

"Yes." Sumiko nodded.

Konoha's forces would be leaving on the _Kagemusha, _and Suna's forces would be leaving on the _Maikaze_, and during the overseas Chuunin exam the two would be joined together along with a Water Country frigate in order to host the exams.

The first and the second would happen in rapid succession of each other, but the third . . .

Well Shikamaru still needed to talk to Naomasa about that. The original plans for the third exam might have to change.

The Mizukage had vaguely mentioned by way of a messenger bird just that morning that a trial by fire exam, which Mist often used in times of war, might be preferable to a simple tournament style sparring session. Shikamaru agreed to a degree, but it would make it harder for Naomasa to keep the students alive, there were _bound _to be casualties.

But really a day to recover after a tournament might not be enough, as the Mizukage had mentioned in his letter. To subject the Genin to such a tumultuous task then ask both winners and losers to go into battle a mere day later would be expecting a lot.

Shikamaru hadn't been the one to decide on an on-sea Chuunin exam though, he'd wanted to simply cancel the examination and assign Chuunin promotions in the field. The Chuunin exams were designed to mimic war as well as promote, since there was no need to "play" war there seemed little need for a Chuunin exam, simply let the Genin fight the real war, some of them had been waiting years to do just that after all.

But Gaara and the Mizukage had agreed a Chuunin exam would be helpful in learning where the Genin--many of which hadn't seen real combat--would best be used before the fighting started.

Shikamaru supposed there was no real problem with sending them provided Yomiko and Kyoko didn't let too many pass. Nao would do well not to have too many Genin to watch if there were going to be an exam like that.

"I just hope this is all over soon . . . maybe I'm too used to a quiet life without ninja missions or wars to fight . . . but we can't just let the bad guys be, you know? That's why we have to go, why even if we're happy here, we still want to go. We want to rescue the whole world and free them so they can be happy too." He told his daughter, hoping that she'd understand why he was going to war even if she was still just a little girl.

Sumiko surprised him by saying "The war won't last very long because we'll win."

Shikamaru stared her.

Five years old and that might have been the first sentence she'd ever spoken that lasted more than just a few words.

He smiled and tussled her raven hair, "That's right Sumi-chan, we're going to win."

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Along with Karin, Sumiko is one of the two characters I have the most trouble writing. With Karin it's because I don't really like her at all--she was starting to grow on me right before I stopped reading the manga again, but I still didn't like her--so I always worry about writing her too out of character, or in the character I perceive her to be rather than the character she is.

Because she plays a larger role in the first and second arcs, Karin is the bigger pet peeve, but Sumiko still manages to be a closes second. One of the problems I have with letting Sumiko be a participating character in Old Souls is her age. That's part of the reason the time skip was four years, I wanted Sumiko to be older because I knew she'd be important, but also didn't want too long a time period to go by without the ninja striking out, even four years seemed too much. I think when I first started I originally planned to have New Blood itself last a couple of years, because for some reason when I was planning to use Sumiko in the sequel the fact that she'd be a kindergartener didn't even occur to me and I'm pretty sure that wasn't the original plan.

If I'd had my way Sumiko would have been eight or nine in this story, so if at times the writing feels like something a five year old--even a genius--would never say I can only admit that it's because I'm no good at writing dialogue for a five year old character. That she's supposed to be a genius feels like too feeble an excuse so I just wanted to ask you all to bear with me when it comes to Sumiko and for that matter Karin, but by all means feel free to comment if something seems to be too much.

As ever thanks for reading and all the reviews, and I'll see you next chapter.


	26. Last Minute Business

**Chapter Twenty Five**

Syako folded her arms over her impressive chest and stomped her foot.

The Sound soldiers didn't seem intimidated.

"Like every moment we wait here is like another moment those ninja scum are preparing our deaths, gentlemen," she reminded them.

Their leader, a young Samurai whose name Syako hadn't bothered to commit to memory since she'd be asking Kabuto-sama to execute him once she was safely in Otogakure, stood up and said "Woman you've been running us like slaves all on the claim of being an agent of the Emperor. We just saw our commanders and friends slaughtered so believe me, we're moving as _fast_ as we can. Besides if what you say is true then indeed we need to get you to his majesty . . . and if you're lying I am also eager to see you executed."

She scoffed, his brazen remark only reinforced her own desire to see him executed . . . possibly his men as well because many of them laughed.

She hated it when people laughed at her.

Sachiko used to take comfort in the knowledge that Kankuro never laughed at her, if he laughed it was at least _with_ her. But Syako took no such comfort, instead the comfort she found was in the knowledge that once her use for these men was finished she would discard them, just like Kankuro had discarded Sachiko.

She sat down and said "Rest then. But like what will you do if my information reaches the Emperor too late?"

"And what information do you have?" The Samurai asked.

"Like _important_ information. I would be like a poor agent if I _told you _the information, would I not? Do not take me for a fool."

The Samurai scoffed and ignored her, she overheard one of the soldiers whisper "hard not to" and rolled her eyes at the creativity.

The men rested, they fed their horses, and Syako waited.

She had no real information, all she had was herself, her service to offer to the Emperor.

Everything else she knew he probably already knew . . . but she might try to give him that information so that he would see her being loyal and favor her.

But she wasn't an idiot like everyone thought. She remembered beating beaten and threatened and then sent on a suicide mission by Kabuto-sama.

He couldn't be trusted, she wasn't _that _important to him.

But she was important to herself . . . and she'd find her way.

She as a lady Samurai, niece of a Daimyo and though she'd wasted four years of her life living in obscurity with a man who did not love her she was still fairly young and she had many adventures laid out before her.

And she'd pass every test because she was brilliant.

Because she was destined for greatness.

Because she was Syako. Before she died she'd show Kankuro just what he'd passed up and she'd make him regret it for the rest of his life.

* * *

Hitomi took a deep steadying breath as she examined herself in the mirror.

She was dressed in the same road-worn clothes, her hair now had only two feathers--she had left her third with Saeki--framing her face.

Her forehead protector was a bit dingy but still good. The important part, the Konohagakure symbol was still visible.

Her flak jacket was . . . well just as she'd left it. It was clear Nao had taken good care of it and hadn't tampered with it in any way. She'd half expected to open one of the pockets and find love letters.

She smiled grimly, and was mildly put off because she actually caught herself trying to determine through the mirror if her smile was cute or not.

Nao hadn't spoken to or approached her since giving back her flak jacket . . . she'd kept expecting him to, Endo said that he'd spoken to the boy and that Ishida had said "has Hitomi gotten any stronger during the mission with Uchiha" and Endo hadn't told her how he'd answered.

But Nao hadn't come to her personally, hadn't bothered her. He spent all his time either training or with his two friends . . . sort of like how she used to spend her time with her two friends.

Friends she wasn't going to let down any more.

She smiled a more genuine smile--and thought it might even look cute and hated herself for it--things were looking up.

The war was about to reignite, Nao had finally moved on so she didn't have to worry about making any stupid mistakes and ruining his life, and with Naruto-sensei coming back soon together they'd find Hara and Miyuki.

She'd find them or she'd die trying.

And since, due to Saeki, death wasn't really an option it left just the one: she'd find them.

She smiled and considered not wearing her goggles for the slightest of seconds.

But for some reason she pushed the thought from her head right away. She didn't want anyone to see her eyes, or even the Genjutsu she'd learned, she didn't want _anyone _to make fun of her.

It was childish, she didn't know why she even cared.

Nothing anyone in this village thought of her mattered. The people who mattered to her, her sensei, Miyuki and Hara weren't there.

Of the people in the village who mattered Saeki had seen her eyes and the girl had no reason to care yet; she was just an infant. Shikamaru-sensei didn't care, Tai and his mother Ichiteru had seen them both normal and under Genjutsu, only Naomasa was ignorant and would _never_--no Naomasa didn't matter!

She clenched her fists and hated herself even more. He didn't matter, not one iota.

She took a few deep breaths and tried to compose herself.

She slid the goggles onto her face . . . he didn't matter, none of them mattered, their judgements didn't matter . . .

And yet the goggles were on her face now, over her eyes and strapped on tight.

She wasn't the crying sort, not since Leaf fell at least, and she wasn't about to cry over herself at any rate . . . but occasionally she wished she could, just to be able to see whether or not it helped.

She left the small bedroom dressed for war, fully equipped with the worst of the equipment Shikamaru had had sent to her platoon--having given the Chuunin all the best, she'd make up for the lack of quality where they might not be able to--and ready to begin once again the terrible business of killing on the grand scale.

No more private back alley duels, no stealthy murders . . . it was time to set out on the battlefield once again and slaughter.

She took a deep breath and headed for the door.

She'd said her goodbyes to Saeki before getting dressed . . . it was stupid but she didn't want the child's last image of her to be her heading off to kill other people's mommies and daddies.

If she survived, if she found her friends, if she came back to Saeki . . . then it'd be done. Forever.

No more. No more killing, no more war, no more . . . no more being a ninja. She'd devote her life to Saeki just like the little one deserved.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and heard Taiki say "Wow . . . you don't look stealthy."

"Ninja are all about subtlety and stealth most of the time," Hitomi smiled, "but when we want our enemies to know who we are and be afraid we don't shy away from wearing the flak jacket and looking our most intimidating . . . same thing for Samurai, when your dad goes into battle he'll be wearing his armor and his sword, he'll look like a demon even though he'll play the role of a guardian angel."

Taiki nodded and said "Good luck, Mi."

Hitomi smiled slightly and whispered, "Thanks."

Ichiteru entered the room and said "She's asleep . . . I know you already said 'goodbye' but . . . if you want to see her one last time . . ."

Hitomi shook her head, "No point making it harder to leave. I'll come back when it's over."

"Yes, you will." Ichiteru said calmly. She seemed to be trying to do an impression of her younger sister Emiko, but failed to carry the same bored confidence in her statement.

But Hitomi appreciated the gesture.

She stepped out and was rather surprised to see Naomasa.

He was heading towards the house, likely to escort his sister Emiko, but Hitomi almost panicked seeing him.

But he didn't so much as glance at her at first.

It was weird, it was as if he were ignoring her existence. He hadn't spoken to her since their last talk, hadn't asked for her help with the Jutsu or with the Chuunin exams . . .

She was tempted to say something to him but not fawning over her was what she'd wanted . . . but she thought they might still be friends or something.

_No, _she decided, _being_ _friends is still too dangerous. And whatever game he's playing now you can't give in to it, Hitomi. Don't fall for his tricks. _She thought.

He walked up to her without saying a word and looked at her very intensely. There was nothing amorous about the look, just calculating, it was almost as if they were enemies.

No, not quite enemies. There was no malice or anger or hatred, just . . . cold, calm calculation. He looked into her eyes, was he trying to see through the goggles?

What if he could? Her heart sped up and she began using the Genjutsu to hide her eyes. She didn't even understand _why _she was using it, nobody had ever seen _through _the goggles, she shouldn't have to and even if he saw her eyes who cared?

She didn't care . . . she couldn't care, he was just a kid. Who cared what some kid thought about her revolting appearance? Who cared if he hated her like everyone else did? The only reason Taiki-chan and Ichiteru-san accepted her was because she'd saved the boy's life, her eyes probably grossed them out.

A sickening fear gripped her heart, she hated worrying about Naomasa seeing her eyes. Why should it matter if he saw them? Why should she get so worried about it?

With the slightest of nods, Naomasa suddenly broke away and walked past her without a word.

As they walked past each other Hitomi hesitated and was about to say something, _anything _to end the uncomfortable silence but Naomasa walked past her without saying a single word or even looking up. No explanation for his pointless little staring contest, no apology for standing in her way even.

Hitomi felt slighted, but wouldn't show it. Was this how Naomasa treated his friends? She knew that wasn't true . . . so was he not her friend? _I see, so we're only friends when there's the slight chance of him getting laid? _She thought bitterly.

Nao was just like every other guy, there was absolutely no difference and she'd been right to reject him time and time again.

If they had been lovers his attitude would have hurt too much, it was just like Miyuki had said; Hitomi's trust issues would never allow her to have a relationship . . . or something like that.

What _had _Miyuki said four years ago? Had it been something about getting over her trust issues? Well that just went to show that Miyuki wasn't always right . . . Hitomi considered saying something to Naomasa just to show she wasn't at his level, that she wouldn't do this whole cold shoulder thing . . .

But the moment was passed, she'd gone too long without saying anything.

She hesitated a bit longer, she had an urge to say something even though the moment was gone, even though it would seem stupid now, or childish . . .

She spun around on her heels expecting to see Naomasa already waiting by the door of his sister's home but to her surprise he was just a step or two behind her.

She was at a loss for words again but Naomasa finally broke the silence.

"Guess I lose." He said calmly, "I bet Kyoko you wouldn't turn around. Guess you don't hate me as much as I thought."

Hitomi felt stupid, and she felt confused, but mostly she just felt mad.

"I hate you plenty!" She snapped, "I just don't _hate _you, hate you, I . . . my hatred for you is more like . . ."

"My hatred for you is like an ocean?" Nao suggested.

"What?" Hitomi blinked.

Nao turned towards her and smiled, "You know . . . normally people say their love is like an ocean . . . but you always say you hate everything and everyone."

"That's not true . . . I love Naruto-sensei." Hitomi said lamely. She sighed and said "I . . . don't hate you Nao."

"It's fine." He said, "I'm getting used to it."

"I don't hate you!" She snapped, "I just don't like being . . ."

"Loved?" He offered.

"You don't love me. And I'm not having that conversation again." Hitomi added.

"I don't expect you to." Nao said. He sighed and whispered, "But I do expect you to defend yourself."

"What?" Hitomi asked but almost instantly Nao sprang to the side and lashed out at her.

She leapt back but Nao hadn't meant to hit her, he'd reached towards her instead.

He'd reached for the goggles . . .

Panic struck her, but she knew it wouldn't matter.

He wasn't fast enough to get--she leapt back again, "What the heck are you doing?" She demanded as he came within millimeters of proving her wrong before her thought was even completed.

"I'm tired of not being able to look you in the eye. I'm going to take those goggles off your face, remember? When we were kids you said the only way I'd see your eyes was if I could get those goggles from you . . . we're both Jounin now, I'm ready for another try."

"Stupid!" Hitomi snapped, "You're a Special Jounin, I'm a Field Jounin, we're not the same and I have more experience to boot."

Nao smirked, "You're overconfident and you don't respect my abilities, at least not when you compare them to your own. I'm going to show you, Hitomi-san, I'm not the little boy you knew anymore, I'm light years ahead of him."

Hitomi felt stupid for saying it once the words were out of her mouth, but all the same she told Naomasa "If that's the case then why don't we make a wager? You had hours last time, what say I give you just ten minutes this time? If you're really that much stronger it won't matter, will it? If you win you get to see my eyes, obviously, but when I win you _never _mention it again."

It was stupid, it sounded like she was going even further disrespecting him and she didn't.

She like--um she respected Naomasa and his ability, she was proud of him for becoming a Special Jounin and heading up the third exam, she didn't want to make him feel inferior.

And she didn't want him seeing her eyes . . . if he did he'd really hate her, and worse he might tease her.

She was a grown woman and she was still afraid of being teased . . . how pathetic was she?

Nao however laughed, "Five minutes."

"What? You're overconfident." Hitomi scoffed.

"Five minutes . . . starting now." Naomasa said.

And even though he said it he still waited two seconds before moving, precious time wasted.

Hitomi just had to count down in her head and when she reached zero she'd win.

Simple.

Nao however moved fast, all the speed training she'd put him through had clearly been continued in their time apart.

She couldn't help noticing how slow his movements still seemed to her though. They were so fast that her body was just barely keeping ahead of him but to her eyes he still moved in slow motion.

It was actually a growing source of concern for her . . . her eyes just kept getting better and better, her brain seemed to keep working faster and faster than her body . . . and her body started to feel like more and more of a shell, an inhibiter.

She'd expressed this concern to Sasuke before, he'd told her he felt the same way sometimes and he just pushed his body further until it caught up with his eyes.

Hitomi wasn't capable of the sort of things that Sasuke-sama was though, she trained her body to improve her speed but doing that just seemed to make her eyes work even faster.

Nao was fast but Hitomi was still faster.

She kept her mental count up, she saw every detail on the battlefield, saw that Naomasa wasn't even bothering trying to lay any traps.

Had he given himself a less ridiculous time limit he might have--

She gasped and ducked down when she saw the kunai Nao tried to thrust into her chest.

No, he'd missed her intentionally, he'd wanted her to duck, he let go of the kunai, it fell behind her. She twisted her gaze to look at it, expecting the kunai to explode into a shadow clone.

It didn't there was nothing there.

Her eyes shot back towards Naomasa before her head even began to turn again.

_Ah hell . . ._ she thought.

* * *

Yukio smirked at Kasumi and Kotaro as they approached, "Well well, don't you two make a cute couple."

"Out of the way, if you please." Kasumi said a bit sharply, "We're in a rush, little guy."

Yukio scoffed, he wasn't little. Heck he was a whole year older than Kotaro and just a year younger than Kasumi.

And he certainly wasn't the smallest or weakest. Due in part to the enhancements that Orochimaru-sama had bestowed upon him. He was only eighteen and yet he had the strength of ten men, how strong would he be when he was twenty eight?

He smirked at Kotaro, who smiled with his eyes--his face covered by his mask--and said "There's no need to be rude, Kasumi. He was paying you a compliment."

"We're in a rush." Kasumi said in an irritated tone.

"Then you already know . . ." Yukio said, trailing off as if he expected them to answer positively, though he knew they wouldn't.

Okatsu-sensei wouldn't have sent him to get the two if they already knew the order.

Kasumi however didn't seem in the mood to play games at all, "Yukio-chan, normally we get on quite well, yes? So . . . why would you make things difficult for me now? Kotaro-kun and I are in a rush . . . surely you can understand . . ."

He understood all right . . . understood that through Okatsu-sensei Orochimaru-sama had given him an order and it wouldn't matter if Kasumi were rushing off to fool around with _him _Orochimaru-sama's orders came first _always. _Yukio smiled sinisterly, "I'm sorry, Kasumi . . . but Orochimaru has given the order. We set out after Sasuke within the hour."

The two exchanged worried glances, which Yukio found odd.

After all when they astral projected and attacked Uchiha Sasuke their actual bodies would be in no danger . . . the people they and their astral projected avatars hurt on the other hand . . .

But Kasumi seemed hesitant to follow the Lord's orders, worse she actually looked like she was getting ready to fight.

Yukio glanced at Kotaro, the First among the five and one of Lord Orochimaru's chosen ones.

He had to check Kasumi and tell her to comply with the order, no member of the Five had every disobeyed before--at least not so far as Yukio could remember. But Kasumi seemed on the verge of rebellion and Kotaro wasn't saying a word to stop her . . .

Suddenly Yukio felt like maybe standing between these two and wherever they were going wasn't smart . . . but they couldn't try to oppose Lord Orochimaru . . . could they?

**To Be Continued . . .**


	27. The Message

**Chapter Twenty Six**

Taiki was amazed at how fast Mi--er Hitomi and uncle Naomasa could move.

They must have been pretty good because even some of the other ninja had stopped what they were doing to watch them.

"What the devil--Naomasa!" Mother shouted but aunt Emiko put a hand on her shoulder.

"Let them be."

"No man should strike the woman he claims to love."

"He's not going to hit her." Aunt Emiko said, sounding amused, "But she's certainly going to hit him . . . and he could stand to be knocked down a few pegs, it'll keep him humble on the battlefield."

Mother shuddered and whispered "How can you possibly guess that?"

"The surprised look on his face . . . and her very deliberate attempts to connect a punch." Aunt Emiko smiled, "It's all very--" she suddenly put her hand over Tai's eyes, blocking his view, mother gasped so Tai knew he'd missed something impressive, "--self explanatory."

Uncle Nao had probably been hit, but he didn't show it.

Hitomi was moving fast, a few of the ninja watching were whispering to each other, as were several soldiers.

Tai frowned, "Why are they fighting here anyway?"

"If he'd let her get somewhere more open she could evade more. Here in the street if she tries to run for a more open space he can take advantage of it. It's a minor advantage and he rightly guessed that she wouldn't want to risk jumping to the rooftops. She figures if she does he'll get her mid-leap."

Mother scoffed at Aunt Emiko's words, "Are they insane? They're going to beat themselves up before the war!"

Emiko didn't say anything, Tai just watched.

He didn't know whom to root for, he knew Hitomi a bit better but Uncle Nao was family . . .

Instead he used it as a chance to watch ninjas in motion. He had seen Hitomi fight another ninja once, but his memories of that were strangely vague and Hitomi had admitted to using a Genjutsu to keep him from remembering the "truly gruesome" parts.

But there were no gruesome parts here, they weren't out to kill.

It was interesting. When Samurai sparred it was like a sort of orderly dance of procedure, skill, strength and honor but with ninja it looked almost random.

"Oh, I see what he's--" Mother laughed softly, but Aunt Emiko cut her off.

"Let Tai be surprised."

* * *

Kotaro surveyed the situation; Kasumi looked ready to pounce.

He closed his eyes, they wouldn't forget anything for a while because they were with Yukio who had instructions for them so there was no way that whatever was being used to make them forget would be used, or it would wipe the instructions from Yukio as well.

Kasumi's eyes were hard and dangerous, Yukio just seemed confused but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of defending himself.

Kotaro took a deep breath, "Well . . . the Emperor knows where Uchiha is then?"

"He has a guess," Yukio said, seeming relieved that Kotaro had broken the silence, "He wants us on the move now. He wants Uchiha as soon as possible, I would have thought you'd be excited."

"Yes . . . we are." Kotaro said He glanced at Kasumi, "We should go now."

"We had a deal!" Kasumi insisted.

"Yes, well it'll have to wait, we have our duty to perform." Kotaro said firmly, willing her to understand.

Kasumi glared at him but slowly she did nod and whispered "Then tell me what I need to know _now_."

Kotaro considered it, and nodded, "On the way." He whispered.

Yukio frowned at them, "Coming?" He asked.

"Yes, absolutely . . . lead the way." Kotaro said sternly.

Kasumi glared at him, "Well?" She whispered, "How will I--"

He whispered "You need to make a message that only your eyes can see in a place that only you're likely to look. Write something in the shadows."

"How does that help me?" Kasumi hissed.

"If we can I'll tell you more later, but you should be able to figure it out."

Kasumi would figure it out, for now the important thing was the hunt for Sasuke, keeping the Emperor happy.

Until he could get to his father and find out what he really needed to be doing.

* * *

Naomasa smirked wickedly, Hitomi overextended herself.

She'd punched too far, missed and she meant for him to make a move for the goggles then..

It was a trap, but he couldn't help but smirk all the same.

His time was almost up. He sprang forward, he reached for the goggles with one hand, she substituted, appearing behind him.

She appeared behind him and his hand shot backwards and up.

He missed the strap of her goggles by a hair, she threw herself backwards and Nao moved to sweep her legs out from beneath her.

She leapt up and Nao jumped up for her, missing.

She landed on the ground behind him, rolled to her feet and grabbed the kunai he'd discarded.

He knew she expected it to be a clone so she crushed the hilt.

The smoke bomb he'd placed under the hilt wrapping, the smoke imitated that of a shadow clone.

And then it was over.

Hitomi tried to escape the cloud of smoke and Naomasa was there, catching her.

She elbowed him in the stomach, he hadn't expected that.

She spun around and kneed him in the stomach, he doubled over.

He groaned but kicked out with his leg as if he meant to sweep her legs out from under her. He waited until she had leapt into the air to avoid it.

She was in the air and for that time she had no control of herself. She couldn't run away, she couldn't adjust her course as far as she could on the ground.

He reached up, grabbing her ankle.

She tried to kick him with her other leg but he ducked under it and came up quickly, pulling on her ankle, closing the distance between the two of them, her other leg hit his shoulder and she brought her foot down on his back roughly.

The distance was gone, his hand shot out for the strap of her goggles.

He grasped it tightly, if she moved now she'd tare them free herself.

The first time they'd done this he'd snapped the strap to make it clear that he'd won, then he'd stolen a kiss from her that'd made her rather upset.

He was tempted to do it again, to make it clear that he was the winner and to get another kiss but this wasn't about kissing, it was about respect.

He wanted hers and he wanted to prove that she had his no matter what her eyes looked like.

But for some reason . . .

He just couldn't do it. He wanted her to care and feel comfortable enough to willingly remove the goggles.

It was time to put aside childish things like that, to prove that he was a Jounin and that he could beat her, that he was good enough.

Whatever she thought, whatever her reasons for not believing in him he had to show her and himself that he was good enough.

He had to know he was good enough, not just for her but for the world, for everything. He had to help his sensei win a war against pretty much the entire world, he had to be there with the Twelve because he was a Jounin now.

But with Hitomi sneaking into his thoughts whenever he let his guard down . . .

He thought and considered for what felt like minutes but in truth it was less than a second.

Hitomi was utterly still, unable it seemed to think of a non-lethal way out of her predicament and Nao came to the rather startling realization that she might not _settle _for non-lethal if she felt threatened enough.

If she _really _didn't want anyone to see those eyes . . .

Hitomi shuddered, Naomasa began to release his grip on the goggle strap.

He'd shown her he was at or near her level, that he was fast and strong just like her, that was enough.

But then he felt an overwhelming desire to look into her eyes anyway. And why not?

He thought furiously that even after he'd gotten the goggles the first time she hadn't respected him much more, his eyes grew hard and Hitomi, probably sensing the change if not seeing it on his face grasped his arm with both her hands, struggling to keep him from removing the goggles.

It just made him so angry, why would she hide this? They were just eyes, even if they were grotesque there was no reason to hide them from him, he was her friends, he'd be _more _than a friend if she'd let him.

_I'll bet she never wore them around that _other _guy. _Nao thought bitterly as he finally forced himself to free the woman he still inexplicably loved.

Hitomi fixed her goggles and laughed uneasily, "What, giving up?"

"Ran out of time." Nao lied. He figured either she'd lost track of the count--if indeed she'd been counting as he had--or hadn't and chose not to say anything about it.

She seemed uneasy and whispered, "Well now everyone's starting at us."

Indeed a lot of people were. Some were now exchanging money--they had _bet _on the four and a half minute fight.

Tai ran up along with Emiko whom Nao was supposed to be walking to the ship--Akira having already gone with his troops, Emiko had wanted to stay behind for a few hours so she wouldn't be in the way, he'd said.

Nao put his hands in his pockets, Hitomi frowned at him.

"Why did you do all this?" She asked very quietly.

"Why not?" He asked.

"It was weird." Hitomi said, "We don't speak for days then all of a sudden you want to fight me?"

"We hadn't spoken for years before that, then you just wanted to avoid me." Nao shot back a little too sharply, "I get it. You met someone better or whatever. So that means I'm nothing to you now, right? Maybe I just wanted to show you I'm worth something."

Hitomi clenched her fists and in a voice that only Naomasa heard even though Tai was now close enough to be in earshot of normal speech she said "Seeing my eyes won't change things between us. You won't understand me any better, you won't love me any more and I won't love you at all."

Nao shook his head, "You seem to enjoy finding ways to complicate my plan to marry you."

"You're getting _married_?" Tai cried in surprise and Nao detected a tone of thrilled excitement.

_Least _someone's _on my side,_ Nao thought with slight satisfaction, but Hitomi laughed slightly.

It wasn't a derisive laugh, but it also wasn't a happy laugh, it was perhaps the first time Nao had ever heard a disinterested laugh that wasn't meant to be sarcastic.

Hitomi looked at Tai, then at Nao and she said "I can't marry your uncle because he's not a grownup."

"But when he grows up?" Tai asked.

"He never will." Hitomi said evenly, "Not to me. It'd be like marrying a little brother . . . creepy and genetically unsound."

Nao sighed, and shook his head. Everyone else had moved on, nobody was watching them anymore.

He was tempted to just reach out and snatch the goggles but Hitomi surprised him.

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

It was barely a kiss, her lips might not even have made contact with his cheek, she may have just made it seem that way or something.

Nao stared at her in confusion and she said "Last time you won and we kissed so . . . you really won this time too. I thought it might be a fitting way to acknowledge that grownup or not you're still good enough that gloves on you'd see my eyes you really wanted to."

"And gloves off?" Nao asked.

"I'd incinerate you immediately and never look back." Hitomi said in a tone that carried just a bit too much seriousness for Nao.

Nao folded his arms, "You'd _try. _Anyway last time we kissed on the lips."

"Last time we were _both_ minors and I didn't have a daughter." Hitomi said simply, folding her arms. "I moved on, Nao . . . why can't you?"

"Because without you the future just isn't worth it. Oh I'll fight the good fight for my Sensei and my friends, they're important to the present. But beyond this war? Beyond the next? Renown, rank, all the rewards of winning this war . . . none of it matters to me without you."

Hitomi frowned, but she didn't seem to have anything to say.

Nao felt like he should be embarrassed by what he'd said but he wasn't. He'd meant it, and Hitomi deserved to hear the truth. It didn't matter if it didn't change her mind, he just wanted her to understand his point of view.

And he'd try to understand hers.

They stood together in silence for a bit then Nao smirked, "Hey . . . "Finished?" Emiko asked.

"Yeah, actually." Hitomi decided, and Nao shrugged helplessly, his sister just smiled.

He glanced at Hitomi and smirked, she frowned at him and asked, "What?"

He placed his hand at the top of his head and swept it out over hers, "I'm taller than you now."

Hitomi blinked and then she laughed softly, "Barely. Anyway what do you expect? Men usually are taller than women."

"I'm not taller than Kyoko." Nao said.

"You are . . . not by very much though." Hitomi shrugged.

He smirked again, "Been watching that closely eh?" He chuckled, he knew he was _slightly _taller than Kyoko, most people figured they were about the same height. It was the sort of difference he knew Hitomi would have noted without even meaning to just because she seemed to see and log away just about everything.

She didn't laugh, but she did smile. She shoved him slightly and said "I don't know about you but I have an invasion to go to."

* * *

Orochimaru smiled as the last three members of his Five entered the room.

He nodded to them and said "I'm so glad you're here. It's time for your mission . . ."

"Now?" Kotaro asked.

"Right now." Orochimaru confirmed, "You will inhabit bodies in the Land of Waves and from there you will find out where Uchiha Sasuke has gone to and track him down."

"Why did we wait to do this?" Shiroi asked, "Why not do it right after I encountered his new student?"

"Because at that time," Orochimaru said calmly, "we did not have an army baring down on us. Obviously Sasuke-kun is behind this. I thought he meant to come to us on his own alone, but clearly he is playing a different game. You will all be sent out to track him down understanding that he is no doubt still in the Land of Waves or on his way there again. Likewise we have received birds from our coast near the Lands of Wind, it seems there has been some unauthorized ninja activity there which means that the Lands of Waters are bound to attack us as well."

"Or it's a diversion." Kotaro suggested but Orochimaru shook his head.

"They're coming. It is my suspicion that Sasuke-kun is with one of the armies. You five will go to the land of Waves and find out whether Sasuke-kun went to Kirigakure or somewhere else, meanwhile my agent will discover whether or not he's with the Lightning army. If the five of you discover nothing in the Land of Waves I want you to commandeer a boat and infiltrate Kirigakure and do as much damage as you can whether you find Sasuke-kun or not. Burn the whole village, if he is there it'll lure him out."

"And if he isn't?" Shiroi asked.

Orochimaru smiled, "Then just have fun."

Shiroi smiled viciously, but Kasumi raised a hand, "So we will be using our shrines in the Land of Waves quite often for the next few days?" Kasumi asked, sounding disappointed.

"You will rest long enough to keep your host bodies from dying. Shiroi-chan your new body will no doubt have arrived by now . . . if the Land of Waves should fall under attack by Sasuke-kun while you're investigating it a spare set of bodies will help you to return to the Land of Waves. We may also need you to annihilate the armies of the Lands of Lightning."

"A demigod's work is never done." Kurai said dryly.

"Indeed. Well . . . to your chambers, children." Orochimaru smiled.

As long as their true bodies remained in his base they were the ultimate weapon. Both unkillable minion and well guarded hostage at the same time.

Orochimaru smiled sinisterly and left the Five to their task. In another moment they would wake in their temples and begin their mission.

* * *

Kasumi's eyes opened and she was alone in a dark cell.

But the darkness was nothing to her, she could see . . .

She blinked and stood up. She bit down on her middle finger as if she meant to summon a familiar and instead she wrote on the wall with the blood of her host.

Now whenever she returned to this body she would see her message scrawled in blood and she would remember. It wasn't really what she wanted but it was a start . . .

She banged on the bars of her cell and hoped it would work as the guards came to release and equip her.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	28. All Aboard

**Chapter Twenty Seven**

Katashi was leaping through the trees above the marching armies of Earth.

They would intercept the Lightning armies in three more days; it was a long trek from The Lands of Earth to the heart of the Lands of Sound where they planned to meet the Lightning armies on the field.

In three days Lightning would either recognize the foolishness of their errant and would be turned back or bloodshed would ensue.

The Lightning army was outnumbered of course, but the Shinobi were going to be the real deciding factor. How many did each side have?

Iwagakure had been allowed to build its force legally but Lightning must surely have found a way to raise a ninja force in secret, Katashi felt an unpleasant shudder run up his back as he considered that for the first time in four years he'd be expected to engage in a large scale ninja battle.

All for the people who'd murdered the true Tsuchikage and his sister.

He laughed bitterly to himself.

Life had such a cruel sense of humor.

He watched the men marching along. Each of them would fight and die for their Daimyo and for the Empire.

Really they should only have to die for the former, the Lands of Earth didn't need the Empire, and they didn't need Sound. They didn't need a false Tsuchikage.

Katashi had long known what he'd have to do and now that the time had come he was scared out of his wits.

But what else was there anymore? What did he have to lose?

He eyed the commander of the Shinobi, Toshiie's young nephew.

An obstacle.

_I'll just have to wait for the right moment. _Kata thought to himself.

And when that moment came . . .

Toshiie would learn, even if Katashi and his sister hadn't been very close killing her had been crossing a line.

Allowing Katashi to live had been a big mistake; he should have been executed the moment he arrived back in Iwagakure.

But Toshiie had failed in that, he'd assumed that Katashi was some sort of rule minded coward, because he took his duty to the former Tsuchikage so seriously Toshiie had taken Katashi's loyalty for granted, assumed that simply being Tsuchikage would be enough.

The Iwa Shinobi smirked to himself, that tremor of fear crawling up his spine again.

He was terrified, maybe he really was a coward, but he was a coward who was mere days away from getting his revenge.

If things went very well he'd even live to see the look on Toshiie's face, would live to be the one who told him the _tragic _news.

* * *

Shikamaru stood aboard the bridge of the _Kagemusha _alongside his fellow members of the Twelve and a few Samurai who would be leading Fire's portion of the soldiers.

Akira would be leading Wind's soldiers personally while Gaara led Suna's ninja.

Shikamaru had command of Konoha's ninja until Naruto made his comeback.

Which Shikamaru hoped would be as soon as they arrived.

"Everything ready?" Ino asked.

"I think so." Shikamaru said simply. "We'll be setting out as soon as everyone's aboard."

"Said goodbye to the family?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Temari's still a little steamed about being on a different boat. The kids were fine though, Sumiko didn't even seem bothered."

"She probably doesn't realize that you won't be back by the end of the day," Chouji said, "the twins wouldn't stop wailing."

"Well maybe they just love you more. Sumiko's such a mama's girl, I told Temari to make sure she wasn't in any of her bags."

Everyone shared a laugh and Shikamaru took a deep breath. "It's finally underway . . . we're going to war."

"Kind of weird," Sakura said, "I mean I should be dreading it but instead I'm eager. I want to get it over with."

"We will." Neji said calmly, "Naruto will lead us to victory."

Shikamaru smiled, "After we finish smacking him around for his little disappearing act."

"Yes," Neji smiled, "after that of course."

"I wonder where he'd been, what he's done. Why it took him so long . . ." Sakura said.

"We'll let you ask him while he still has teeth." Ino said lightly.

Shikamaru smiled as he heard the ship's captain call for the cast off.

"It's time." He sighed, and put his hands in his pockets.

He felt something, a piece of paper.

He pulled it out and looked at it.

It was the picture Sumiko had drawn for him . . . the one she'd slipped into his paperwork.

She must have slipped it into his pocket earlier. He smiled; maybe she'd miss him more than she let on.

He looked at the little drawing; Sumiko really was a talented artist.

The picture of himself, Temari and Sumiko-chan, both parents wore forehead protectors and Sumiko stood between them holding their hands.

They were surrounded by shadows, so many shadows. Not just their shadows but the shadows of other things too, it seemed like the shadow of buildings, maybe of people.

There was something about this picture . . . what was it?

It nagged at the back of his mind, something he felt like he should notice.

Shikaru wasn't in the picture. Maybe that was it? But then he'd noticed that the last time he looked at it and that time something had felt wrong too . . . what was the deal with this picture?

He wandered off of the bridge towards his quarters in order to think on it. He'd nearly reached his personal quarters when suddenly the answer hit him like a sledgehammer.

"No . . . no!" He whispered, and then he swore . . . a lot.

He rushed back to the bridge and shouted to the captain, "Stop the ship!"

"We can't do that." The captain said

"What's the problem Shikamaru?" Sakura asked. She was the last member of the Twelve on the bridge.

"Get Neji! Get any Hyuga!" Shikamaru said, trying to sound calm though he felt frantic.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"Sumiko is _on the ship,_ she thinks she's going to war with us!" Shikamaru said and suddenly Sakura looked just as worried as he felt.

"Why the heck would she think that?"

"I kind of told her it was okay." Shikamaru said. "I mean I didn't realize that was what I was saying but it's what she thought I was saying she's on the ship!"

Sakura gawked at him, "If you're right I'm looking at a dead man, because Temari-san is going to _murder _you!"

"Not if she never finds out, get Neji before we're too far from the island to take her back!"

"Shikamaru you're a sensor!" Sakura protested.

"I can't sense her specific chakra, not on a ship full of soldiers and ninja, not unless I get close enough to her, why haven't you gotten Neji?"

If only he'd had enough sleep the first time he'd seen the picture he'd have realized, he'd have told her that it wasn't okay to go with them into battle.

Sakura shook her head and said again, "Temari-san is going to murder you."

"If anything happens to Sumiko I'll save her the trouble." Shikamaru said grimly.

"Shikamaru, how would we get her back to the island even if we found her?" Sakura asked as they began their search for Neji.

Shikamaru didn't answer, the longer it took to find Sumiko the fewer options they'd have.

He hated himself so much right then.

* * *

Sumiko smiled cheerfully when she bumped into Yomiko-san in the hallways.

Yomiko gave her a surprised look, "Wh-what the heck?" Miko-san gawked, "Wh-who said you could come?"

"Daddy." Sumiko said happily.

"Figures." Yomiko sighed, "Leave it to Sensei to think of something ludicrous. When I heard him talking about wanting more strategists I never thought he meant preschoolers."

Sumiko frowned, wondering if Yomiko-san knew where she should put her things. She was kind of tired of carrying them, and she didn't know where she was supposed to be.

Getting on the boat--uh _ship _had been hard enough because nobody seemed to understand that she was allowed to get on so she had to be sneaky, now she didn't want to talk to anyone other than people who knew her, people who'd know that it was okay for her to be on the bao--_ship_ because otherwise she might get thrown off and she wouldn't be able to help her dad.

She wanted to ask Yomiko but decided against it, Yomiko was surprised she was here so she wouldn't know where her room was. Still she decided to stay with the trusted grown up rather than continue to look around on her own so she held out her hand for Yomiko to take.

And Yomiko, to her credit, was smart enough to understand what Sumiko wanted. She took the smaller girl's hand and said "I guess I better take you to your dad, you don't want to be wandering the ship alone."

Ah good, Yomiko didn't personally know where Sumiko needed to be but her father would know and Yomiko was taking her to her father.

She was happy she'd found Yomiko-san before someone who might have tossed her off the ship--er boat--no _ship_!

* * *

Kyoko yawned and tossed her equipment down on the floor.

The troop transport destroyer was designed to carry a lot of soldiers, enough that everyone could probably have had their own room but Kyoko would be sharing Yomiko's.

It was temporary, one the Chuunin exam was over she'd be going with Temari-sensei and the rest of the Suna ninja.

Until then she needed to remain close to Yomiko and Naomasa, the two other proctors.

Though she'd heard Yomiko mention that they might end up helping Nao for the third exam--which Kyoko had expected and been prepared for--but that the exam might actually take place _during _the battle, which she _hadn't _been expecting and it seemed cruel of Shikamaru-sensei to have failed to mention it right off the bat.

But Kyoko would wait and see what her orders were.

Sharing a room with Yomiko might be a bit of a challenge, she realized. Her hand moved unconsciously to her neck . . . could she keep it hidden? Would Yomiko even care enough to notice it?

Maybe . . . maybe she should try to make sure that Yomiko didn't spend too much time in their room . . .

She frowned; maybe she'd better try to make sure Yomiko spent her nights in Nao's room?

No! No that was wrong, why would she even consider that?

She grasped her neck, was it that _thing's _fault? Was it affecting her thoughts? Did it make her bad or was she already that way? Was she so selfish that she'd force her only friends together just to keep her secret?

But then didn't Yomiko want to be with Nao anyway? Maybe she'd be doing something good by getting them together, by finally just telling Nao that Yomiko liked him.

She felt embarrassed of her own thoughts, why would she think that about her friends? No, she'd just keep her neck covered, Yomiko had no reason to look too closely anyway.

She groaned, she hadn't considered before just how dangerous sharing quarters on a ship might be.

* * *

"So wait, you were a ninja," Hitomi scoffed, "but you don't bother to hide that fact?"

"Hide it from whom? Another ninja? Why bother?" Kaoru asked with a raised eyebrow, "Besides, wouldn't you have guessed by now even if I were hiding it?"

"Just sayin'." Hitomi shrugged as they continued climbing the cliff face, focusing the chakra in their hands and feet to make what should otherwise have been impossible without equipment a surprisingly easy task.

He laughed and pulled himself higher, "If you'd been a samurai or something I probably would have lied and tried to keep my past a secret. But then if you'd been a Samurai I wouldn't have asked you to come with me, I'm not coming up this mountain the hard way."

Hitomi guessed that made sense. They reached the top and Kaoru helped her up though it really was no trouble.

"Wow . . . just . . . wow. There's a ton of them!" Hitomi gasped, looking at all the feathers scattered around on the ground.

"Yeah, don't touch 'em."

"I thought you were here to collect them." Hitomi said.

"Not those ones, those ones were shed, they're dead soulless, they're just pretty and nothing more."

"So what, we have to pluck feathers from a living bird?"

"No, no, if we were just thieves we'd take a few of the birds with us and never have to make this pilgrimage again."

"The downside being . . ." Hitomi trailed off.

"It's a spiritual experience that can't be obtained otherwise," Kaoru explained.

"I don't especially care about spirits." Hitomi yawned.

Kaoru laughed, "Yeah, I kind of get that impression from you."

Hitomi didn't respond, there was no response to make. Instead she surveyed the ledge they were on. It led into a cave and the floor was littered with feathers, but she didn't see any sort of nest or anything.

By the look of the feathers the birds were probably pretty large, she was a little apprehensive about being so near to live birds when standing on the edge of a cliff. What if they flew out and startled her?

What if she fell to her death?

"Why are we even doing this?" Hitomi asked.

Suddenly she heard a screech and a large bird descended from the sky.

It landed on the stone and Kaoru knelt down so Hitomi did the same.

"Don't threaten it," He said.

"I don't go picking fights with eagles!" Hitomi hissed.

And that was all it was really, a large red bird of prey, maybe an eagle or a hawk, Hitomi didn't know the difference.

It watched them with intense eyes and then Kaoru said to it "H-hello. I am Kaoru and this is my friend Hitomi."

"You're talking to the bird." Hitomi whispered.

Kaoru shushed her and continued, "We don't mean to trespass. We are only here for your blessing and guidance."

The hawk or eagle or whatever it was continued to watch them, then finally it started preening itself.

"I half expected him to talk back," Hitomi admitted but again Kaoru shushed her.

Then she felt it, like a wave hitting only her brain.

The thoughts washed over her and she nearly collapsed.

She felt rather than heard the wrods_** What do you want, stranger?**_

Hitomi had no answer at first. What did she want?

Freedom?

Life?

Money?

Revenge?

The answer came to her and she felt embarrassed, even weak but the wave washing over her brain became warm and comforting. She felt the words **_Would you know it if you had it?_**

She opened her eyes and Kaoru was standing but the eagle-hawk-whatever was heading into the cave.

It was over?

That was it?

Kaoru held up a pair of long green feathers and one that was a gorgeous violet.

"Looks like he deemed you worthy too. Four feathers? And they're _blue_! Blues are the rarest, that's quite a prize. What did you say?"

"Say? I didn't say anything, if I had you'd have heard me." Hitomi said, absolutely confused by what had just happened, "Was that some kind of summoned beast or--"

"I mean how did you answer the question." Kaoru asked, "what did he even ask you?"

"Why are the feathers blue? He was red!" Hitomi said as Kaoru picked up the four long blue feathers and handed them to her.

"They're spirit feathers, their color changes according to the spirit in them."

"What, like a ghost?"

"No . . . the spirit like . . . like an emotion. The emotion you felt when you answered the question."

"So . . . what does blue mean?" Hitomi asked.

Shame? Despair?

"Blue is hope, something most people don't focus on or even have these days. So what'd you say?"

Hitomi blushed and looked away, "He asked me what I wanted . . . and . . ." She looked at the feathers, did she really have hope?

"What'd you say?" Kaoru asked when she went too long without answering.

"I . . . said I didn't know." She lied.

But she knew the answer she'd truthfully given.

_Acceptance._

She just wanted acceptance . . . honest loving acceptance like the sort she'd gotten from her father, maybe her mother too in her own way. She wanted that from Miyuki and Hara and Sensei but had never trusted them completely. As much as she loved them and sensed they loved her she couldn't risk losing that by seeking acceptance as well.

And yet hadn't Matsuri accepted her in those final moments? Why should she believe that Hara or Miyuki wouldn't have?

And that was the reason for wanting forgiveness.

She felt bad lying to Kaoru but he didn't seem to notice.

* * *

Hitomi sat up in bed and yawned.

She'd be sharing her quarters with the rest of her squad, but they were still mingling with the other leaf ninja.

She took a deep breath and felt a little ill.

She hated remembering.

Acceptance . . . at that moment it'd been all she could think of wanting. Now it was all Naomasa kept trying to give her. Well, he had that and a fairly obvious amount of lust. But she just knew the one was reliant on the other, he wouldn't accept her if he stopped wanting her so it wasn't real acceptance anyway.

She angrily punched her pillow.

She'd just go back to sleep. She didn't need Naomasa or his acceptance. Better to just keep pushing him away or towards Yomiko.

She wasn't the girl for him.

_Don't have to be in love to be accepted, _she thought, _he can still be your friend can't he?_

But she knew the answer to that was "no" because she and Nao could never _just _be friends. He'd never stand for that, he'd keep pushing her and pushing her.

And she'd give in sooner or later. There was no denying the boy had gotten cute--no outright handsome was the word for it. She'd been shocked seeing him for the first time, she'd tried to keep him from looking at her at first because she knew she'd blush, she'd prayed of all things that Nao's sister would forget to hand Saeki back to her just because she was afraid of letting Naomasa see her blush . . . or see how old she'd gotten.

And she made herself sick even thinking it. She was twenty two, he was seventeen, it was wrong in every way, why didn't _he _see that?

She scowled and held her already abused pillow over her face and screamed into it.

Why did Nao have to make her life so much more complicated than it needed to be? She'd get him together with Yomiko if it was the last damned thing she did, and once he was with Yomiko he wouldn't even think about her ever again, she'd be free, she'd be safe.

She'd never have to risk being hurt by anyone . . . ever.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	29. One More Thing

**Chapter Twenty Eight**

Sasuke watched as the two Leaf village destroyers came into view. He folded his arms and said "Finally."

"What, you thought they wouldn't show?" Suigetsu laughed.

The two men were standing at the bow of the _Amagiri_; Karin was nearby talking quietly to Juugo though Sasuke could hear her he wasn't interested in what she was saying.

"I knew they'd come, I just mean it's nice to see that the big moment's getting closer." Sasuke said.

"Mm. Well we'll handle the Chuunin exams and the real battle will be here before you know it."

"How do you think it'll all end?" Sasuke wondered.

"What?" Suigetsu asked, sounding surprised "Isn't it obvious?"

"Humor me." Sasuke said.

Suigetsu laughed, "Shikamaru posed four different attack paths not just to make it difficult for the enemy to stop our entire force."

"It's a competition . . . the prize is the empire." Karin said, "If Kirigakure gets there first and manages to supplant the Emperor it'd be one of our guys calling the shots. We could order the armies to stand down against the rest of the alliance or order them to finish them off if they're in that position."

Sasuke glanced at Karin, "You mean Shikamaru engineered things so we could betray each other?"

"I'd say not deliberately but let's face it, he's Shikamaru; he doesn't do anything that isn't deliberate. I think he _believes _he'll get there first so it won't matter, but that the chance to control everything will keep us fighting." Karin shrugged, "He doesn't realize though that we're all playing our own games."

"Or he realizes and doesn't care." Sasuke suggested.

"Possible, but he's not omnipotent." Suigetsu said, "Besides my plans don't affect him yet, I'm thinking in the long term Sasuke . . . Shikamaru's fighting this war and so am I. But with help from the three of you I'm already fighting the next one too. Trust me Sasuke; there will be a next war."

"Isn't there always . . ." Juugo said softly.

"With Karin's help I'm going to secure some of the weapons I need while I have the chance so that even if things go belly up now I'll be ready next time. That's what being a Mizukage is all about really; preserving and preparing for the future."

Sasuke watched Karin.

What weapons would she help Suigetsu get?

Could they be ninja? She would be useful for that . . .

She smiled coyly as he calculated and stared.

Suigetsu must be after specific individuals in Kabuto's empire, ninja most likely but maybe some Samurai, individuals that would be his weapons in the next war.

But who?

How could he find out?

It occurred to him once again that he might have to work Karin's attraction to him for information, but she wasn't an idiot, she'd _know _if he tried to manipulate her.

He might have to do something to keep her from suspecting, or perhaps from caring.

His mind worked a mile a minute; he almost didn't notice the smirk on Suigetsu's face.

"It's killing you, isn't it?" Suigetsu grinned.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"You're never going to figure it out . . . or if you do it'll be after the fact, when it's too late." Suigetsu laughed, "But don't worry, you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's for your benefit too; you're part of my team after all."

Sasuke forced a smile. Suigetsu was reveling in the fact that Sasuke couldn't anticipate his plan.

In a clearer state of mind he might have realized that Shikamaru could have, but when the beginnings of the thought came to him Sasuke rejected them.

_He _would do this. _He _would find out what the answer was . . . who the ninja were . . .

Naruto? Cold Karin know how to find Naruto? Or would Suigetsu somehow reach Naruto before anyone else could?

Sasuke clenched a fist, Suigetsu's stupid smile was infuriating and Karin just gently patted his shoulder in a comforting manner, "Don't worry. You'll love it, I promise."

Sasuke decided to smile at her as if he appreciated her sentiment, though in the darkest corner of his mind he was thinking of just how to get the information out of her without having to do anything that would demean his dignity too much.

Juugo gave him a hesitant look, as if there were something he wanted to say and Sasuke's sharp eyes spotted the glare that both Suigetsu and Karin shot him.

It was brief, but Juugo immediately turned away from Sasuke, whatever he meant to say left unsaid.

And Sasuke realized he might not have to rely on Karin.

Or maybe this was all a scheme to throw him for a loop.

He kept his face expressionless as Suigetsu led them from the bow to the starboard side of the ship where the ropes were being thrown to the ship of Sunagakure, Sasuke could already see Gaara and Temari on the deck, clearly the Kages meant to discuss something and as part of Suigetsu's staff Sasuke would be there.

But once he got a moment to himself he'd be spending it with his dear old friend Juugo.

If that didn't work . . . well Karin's loyalty to Suigetsu had to have its limit, even if she respected or feared Suigetsu she _loved _Sasuke, and whatever Sasuke had to doto take advantage of it that love would be Suigetsu's undoing.

* * *

Shikamaru's hands were shaking as he looked at the little girl quietly drawing a picture on the floor near the door of Yomiko's quarters.

"So she's not supposed to be here?" Yomiko reasoned.

"What on the green earth made you think she was?" Shikamaru asked, shoving his hands into his pockets to keep Sumiko from noticing that her father was literally shaking with fear.

"I didn't _bring _her," Yomiko scoffed, "I just found her."

"Finished!" Sumiko said cheerfully, holding her picture out to Yomiko who took it and smiled brightly.

"Oh, so pretty. What is it, a dog?" She asked.

Sumiko wrinkled her nose and scoffed, but she didn't say anything at first.

When it became evident that Yomiko wasn't getting what Sumiko didn't want to have to use words to convey the girl conceded and said, "Battle plan."

Yomiko raised an eyebrow then looked at the picture again before handing it to Shikamaru.

He pocketed it; he didn't want Sumiko to think for an instant that she was going to actually be involved in planning.

"For Miko-san." Sumiko scolded him, but he raised a finger to his lips to indicate that she should be quiet.

"Sumiko-chan . . . why are you on this ship? Do you understand where it's going? What we're going to be doing?"

"War." Sumiko shrugged.

"War." Shikamaru nodded, "Sumiko-chan, how many five year old ninja do you see on this ship?"

Sumiko shrugged, so Shikamaru persisted, "Five year old Samurai? Five year old _anything_? Sumiko-chan children don't go to war."

Sumiko raised a questioning eyebrow at Yomiko, as if to say 'uh, hello?' and Shikamaru might have laughed if they weren't on a war ship headed for a major battle.

Sumiko stood up and clasped her little hands behind her back as if she were impersonating a soldier at parade rest--and Shikamaru realized she was--she took a deep breath and said, "I can win."

"Wow . . ." Yomiko whispered, and Shikamaru glanced at her.

"What?"

"She said three whole words, that's the most I've heard her say _ever_." Yomiko said.

"She says full sentences," Shikamaru said, feeling somewhat defensive, "she just doesn't like to talk."

"Are you shy?" Yomiko asked her, but the much smaller girl's expression hardened and she shook her head.

"I can _win_." She repeated.

Shikamaru shook his head, "No you can't."

"I can too!" Sumiko snapped, and then checked herself, "I listen to you and mommy all the time."

"Not _all _the time, I hope." Yomiko whispered, and Shikamaru glared at her.

"Can you go?" He asked.

"It's _my _quarters, Sensei!" Yomiko protested.

"_All _the time." Sumiko said firmly, though Shikamaru doubted she knew what Yomiko had been alluding to. His daughter was smart but she was still just a child.

Shikamaru took a few deep breaths and whispered, "So what do I do?"

"Dunno." Sumiko shrugged.

"You said you could win." Yomiko observed.

"Uh-huh." Sumiko nodded.

"So don't you know how to win?" Yomiko asked.

Sumiko frowned, "Can't win till we start playing."

"It's not a game." Shikamaru scolded her, "people will die . . . Sumiko that means that lots of little girls' mothers and fathers won't ever get to see them again if we don't make good decisions."

"Don't care about theirs, just mine." Sumiko said simply.

Shikamaru frowned, "I can't let you fight, or plan things for the battle. Do you understand, Sumiko-chan? I can't let you get involved in this war; this is a grownup war for grownups to fight."

"Sensei, just how are we going to get her back to the island anyway?" Yomiko asked, "At best we'd leave her with the fleet when we make landfall and she ends up in Mizu, who would supervise her all that time? A bunch of sailors who'll have their minds focused on . . . y'know, _surviving _the naval battle?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "No, we're too far from the island to just turn back if we want to reach Waves in time, I'll send her back on a skiff with a team of Genin."

"No!" Sumiko said firmly, but Shikamaru stood up and ignored her.

"Yomiko she's your responsibility until the meeting with the Kazekage and the Mizukage concludes, I have to find some way to explain this to Temari and I don't want her at the meeting, it might throw her mother into a violent rage."

"Temari-san isn't like that." Yomiko scoffed, "Anyway why can't I be at the meeting? It'll be about the Chuunin exams won't it? I'm a Jounin now and it affects my duty." Yomiko said.

"Nao and Kyoko will be there, and you're a Special Jounin, consider this a B ranked mission."

"Am I getting _paid _for a B ranked mission, Sensei?" Yomiko asked dryly.

That'd be one expensive babysitter . . .

Shikamaru shook his head, "Do this and I'll owe you."

"Sensei, I know she can't go into battle or anything but isn't it worrying that she managed to sneak onto the ship in the first place?" Yomiko asked, watching Sumiko who seemed to be fuming.

Probably because the adults were talking about her as if she weren't there. That would have made most people mad.

"She's a child, Yomiko. I don't care what her ability to get onboard implies, great stealth skill, keen intellect, none of it matters, I'm not taking my five year old daughter anywhere near a war zone."

"Understandable, I'm not suggesting that you do it's just if she gets away from me--"

"She won't." Shikamaru warned as much as assured.

"Right, but _if _she did wouldn't it make sense to assign me a sensor or something? Someone to help track her down?"

Shikamaru shook his head, he'd thought of that too but there weren't any sensors available to send Yomiko, especially not for a personal matter like this.

"You'll just have to guard her thoroughly. Don't worry, she's _five._" Shikamaru said.

"Gonna be six." Sumiko pointed out.

"She's going to be six," Shikamaru acknowledged as he headed for the door.

He felt his stomach twisting in knots, as soon as he closed the door to Yomiko's room he let out a weary sigh.

Life.

He noticed Kyoko standing to the left of him watching him quietly.

She seemed to be sweating, she looked exhausted and her forehead protector was tied tightly around her neck but Shikamaru was pretty sure he saw the edge of some sort of irritation.

_Teenagers _he thought, worried about how old the thought made him feel and then sighed again before telling Kyoko, "You're supposed to be at the meeting with the Kages."

"I . . . uh . . . I don't know if I can make it, I feel . . . uh . . ." Kyoko said warily, avoiding eye contact.

Shikamaru was standing between her and the door to the quarters she would be sharing with Yomiko. He put his hands on his hips and decided to be just a little mean, Sumiko's little stunt had put him in a sour mood but he wasn't taking it out on Kyoko.

He was just going to give her a bit of good-natured teasing, "Yeah I guess you seem a little spent. Troublesome work riding a ship for a few hours, isn't it?"

The young woman nodded slightly, and he folded his arms, "So long as you're keeping safe we don't need to remember this. Just remember you need to be in fighting shape."

Kyoko nodded stiffly, "Uh, yes . . . wait, what?"

Shikamaru said, "I thought being a Kunoichi you'd know better, you _always _make sure not to _look _like you're hiding something but sometimes it's okay to hide _some _things; You're disheveled, covered in sweat and don't think I don't notice what you have on your neck," he told her and Kyoko's hand quickly shot to the very spot Shikamaru had been referring to, the look in her eyes frantic.

"S-s-sensei I--"

"Oh enough," Shikamaru said, "You're eighteen you can do whatever the heck you want. _However_ we are at war and your duty needs to come first _so _take a moment to compose yourself, but you _will _be at the meeting, Temari expects you."

"P-please don't tell Kazekage-sama, I--"

"Why would he care?" Shikamaru asked. Kyoko's response seemed somewhat off.

_Too _frantic, _too _scared.

Kyoko hesitated, she mumbled and then she said "I . . . uh . . . I . . ."

"Is this a song?" Shikamaru asked a little too sharply, he smelled a lie oncoming.

"I . . ." Kyoko looked at the ground, "Sensei . . . um . . . just don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Nothing to tell them, it's none of my business." Shikamaru said, though something wasn't right.

He hesitated, he wasn't sure how deep into Kyoko's personal life he wanted to go, but at the same time he was becoming very sure that his initial thought was incorrect.

He'd assumed Kyoko and . . . _someone_, he didn't know or care who, had found some quiet corner and gotten to know each other better. It was perfectly natural in a coed military sailing towards a decidedly one-sided war, in fact it was one of the reasons Shikamaru imagined that Samurai militaries weren't coed.

He'd assumed the mark on her neck was just a souvenir from the event, but why was she so desperate to hide it? She was an adult and he wasn't her father or anything, why should she go into such a tizzy fit over him seeing the signs of her leisure activities?

He supposed it was just that Kyoko wasn't Temari. If Temari were an eighteen year old girl who'd just engaged in an activity frowned upon by her commanding officers she would have made only a paltry attempt to hide the evidence and otherwise wear it as a badge of honor, Kyoko on the other hand seemed afraid and embarrassed.

But at the same time that fear worried him, "Did something . . . um . . . happen without your uh . . . permission?" Shikamaru asked, extremely unsure of how to phrase the question.

Kyoko laughed a little wearily, "Uh n-no sir. I mean . . . nothing happened. I'm just feeling sea sick, that's all."

"And your neck . . ." Shikamaru asked calmly.

"Bruised it." Kyoko said smoothly, lying with much more confidence now. "I was walking and the ship pitched or yawed or whatever it is that ships do . . . and I hit a wall and hurt my neck on a protrusion. I'll just put some ointment on it and fix my clothes . . . I'll be at the meeting shortly after you, I won't be late."

"Doubtful, since I'm bound to be late by now," Shikamaru said, pretending the moment of doubt had passed. "I'll tell Gaara and the others that you're on your way . . . and that's _all _I'll tell them."

"Thank you, Sensei." Kyoko bowed slightly, but didn't move her hand from her neck as she did.

Shikamaru nodded and left.

More trouble.

First he'd take care of Sumiko, and then he'd worry about Kyoko.

Hopefully he could get her taken care of before they landed.

His stomach was twisting again, this time it was registering as slightly painful. He might have to ask Sakura about it later.

Just another thing to deal with.

* * *

Hinata took a deep breath, "We're in position, but I don't see ships on the horizon."

"It's much too soon for that." Tenten said.

She wanted the ships to show up as much as Hinata did, maybe even more since she was worried about Neji, but even she knew just saying that they weren't there over and over again wasn't going to make them show up.

Hinata was just a bundle of nerves probably,

Not that Tenten wasn't.

Hinata kept tapping her foot, "If we hold out here forever we'll be spotted by someone."

"The whole Hyuuga clan, minus Neji, would be spotted? By _who_?" Tenten tried to make light of the situation.

Hinata shook her head, "This is pure madness."

"Are we still talking to each other?" Tenten asked.

Hinata was pacing now, "How long do I have to wait?"

Tenten decided not to answer; Hinata didn't seem to be hearing her.

She just watched the younger woman carefully.

Hinata shook her head over and over and sighed, "I'm sorry. This must sound pretty fatuous."

Tenten didn't actually know what that word meant so she just shrugged. Hinata laughed.

They had no fire so the night was cold but the moon offered them a surprising amount of light considering it wasn't full.

Tenten sighed and looked at Hinata, "You're not worried about Naruto, are you?"

"He's supposed to be here." Hinata grunted.

"He will be."

"Yes, I know . . ." She frowned, "but he should be here. I mean he should be here now, he shouldn't have left." Hinata said.

Tenten shrugged, "I'm sure wherever he went he had a good reason."

"He should have taken me with him; Neji could have led the clan." Hinata grumped.

"Maybe. Maybe not. You have no idea where he went, he probably went somewhere dangerous. He might not have even known if he'd come back alive, he probably didn't want you at risk. I mean he did leave you in Lightning, a place much safer than the exiled village."

"But Sound doesn't know where the village is, they _know _where Lightning is." Hinata said.

"They don't go _looking _for Lightning because they know where it is, and even if they did it's a fortified country." Tenten shrugged, "the island had what, about a thousand soldiers and a few hundred ninja? If it came down to a fight before we were ready Lightning was much safer than the village."

Hinata shrugged, Tenten smirked, "He'll be here soon. He said he would, didn't he? And he doesn't go back on his word, that's his ninja way. So if he said he'll be here then you know he'll be here."

The young head of the Hyuuga clan nodded, "Yes . . . you're right, Naruto doesn't go back on his ninja word."

Hinata frowned, "It's almost time . . . just two more days, or is it one and a half now? Either way it's going to be the longest time of my life."

"Just yours eh?" Tenten laughed.

The two women waited in silence for a moment, Tenten kept a mental count in her head and then said "One minute down."

"Well hurrah." Hinata said without enthusiasm, but at least she was smiling.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Just for the record no chapter was posted on April 1st, I just reposted 28, called it 29, and then took it right back down. For those of you who have the story on your alerts list the chapter title would have read "April Fools" for those of you who didn't have it on your alerts list I didn't realize at the time that you'd even know something had gone down . . . I sort of forgot that the site would record the story as updated even if the fake chapter was taken down, and thus the rest of you had no way of knowing it was an April first joke so I apologize for getting everyone's hopes up.

To be fair my original April Fool's day plan was to write a fake ending full of l33t speak, intentional spelling errors, and I had also planned to have Naruto appear and be defeated immediately by a gust of wind, have Sasuke die but keep coming back to life as if to imply that I'd forgotten I'd killed him, and have Sumiko actually fighting. A chapter containing all the things that won't ever happen in this story.

This was planned and looked forward to as early as, I believe, February; I was going to leave that chapter up for all of April 1st then replace it with the real update the following day and I think it would've been the closest I've come to ever actually celebrating a holiday in-fic.

But I had some personal issues to deal with and didn't get to write a legitimate chapter let alone the fake. Maybe next April 1st . . . though I kind of hope I finish the story before then.

Anyway I am sorry for falling so behind, not to take myself too seriously but you all deserve better than that and I apologize. I'll try to make sure I spend this weekend getting caught up so who knows, there might even be an update tomorrow to help get back on schedule and erase some of my shame . . . until next time!


	30. Marching Orders

**Note: **The Matsuri with Gaara is the Matsuri from Suna, not the Matsuri from Konoha. Since Kishimoto didn't bother to give either girl a last name, the fact that the Konoha Matsuri is dead should help you discern between them. Anytime Hitomi talks about a dead Matsuri she means the one form Konoha, whenever Gaara references a still living Matsuri . . . well you get the idea.

**Chapter Twenty Nine**

Gaara watched the assembly stir uneasily as they waited for Shikamaru.

Temari on his right, Matsuri on his left and both seemed nervous.

Temari was tapping her foot impatiently and was probably wondering how to punish her husband for being late, Matsuri just seemed nervous.

With the Mizukage was Karin and Sasuke, his fourth party member, Juugo waited just outside the room.

Sakura and Neji were going to be helping Shikamaru represent Konoha in Naruto's place.

If he were anyone else Gaara might have been mildly concerned when he noticed the brief glares passing between Karin and Sakura, but he didn't care.

Still Temari seemed to have taken note of it because while she was making various impatient gestures her eyes were watching Karin very carefully.

The doors swung open, Shikamaru rushed in and took his seat, "All right, all right," He said, "I'm here."

"What happened?" Temari asked.

"Helped an old woman cross the street." Shikamaru said.

"We're in the middle of the ocean." Temari said.

"Enough!" Sasuke snapped, "You two can play your little game later, we're here to discuss business and we're already behind!"

"Settle down, Sasuke," Suigetsu laughed, "I find them entertaining. Still my angry associate is correct, let's get down to it. The Chuunin exams will, I expect, begin tonight?"

"We finish the first and second immediately, give the kids some rest and hold the third during the fighting." Sakura nodded, "Neji and I will be part of a strike team that will clear the path of major opposition. The candidates will participate in a Chuunin level objective."

"That's insane!" Sasuke snapped, "You're going to send Genin into the thick of battle thinking it's just an examination?"

"The third exam has _always _been the most dangerous; they'll be under the guard of a Jounin with additional forces nearby." Gaara said.

"_Your _platoon, in fact." Shikamaru added, "I've given them to Hijiri, they'll be going in with Neji and Sakura."

"Then I'll be with them." Sasuke said, "They're _my _squads."

"No, they're Konoha and Suna squads," Suigetsu said blithely, "leave them to this Hijiri person."

"I'll keep them safe, Sasuke-kun. Them _and _the Genin, they're not in danger."

"No more than they would be anywhere else. Besides they'll only be the Genin who've proven they're practically at a Chuunin level anyway. Not every fighter can be a Jounin and not every Jounin is on the same level, for the intents and purposes of this examination mission their rank doesn't matter." Shikamaru said, "Let's move on."

"To what?" Sasuke asked.

"The invasion." Gaara said flatly, and he nodded to Matsuri who unrolled a large map across the table.

It was a map of the great nations, Shikamaru got started right away.

He pointed to several places, "From what we know Lightning's deployed here, which means that Earth's army is moving to intercept them."

"Sound's army would be coming to Wave then in anticipation of our attack."

"Close but no cigar." Shikamaru said, "They'll send a force to Waves but they'll consolidate their main army in the capital. My prediction is that the Emperor will tap Wind's army and force them to Waves."

Sasuke scoffed but Matsuri nodded, "I agree, Shikamaru-sama. They'll try to use Wind's army in the hopes that we'll suffer a loss of morale and zeal."

"Fine," Sasuke said, "But that means we have some time, if they dispatched the orders to Wind it'd take a day or two for the carrier bird to reach the Wind capital, and then it'd take time to muster the army. Then it'd take them days to reach Waves."

"True," Matsuri said, "But I doubt that Wind's army is all they're throwing at us."

"The Five will almost certainly be there in avatar form; he'd pull them from the pitch of battle with Lightning if we hit Waves because he'll anticipate Sasuke-kun being there."

"True enough, that's our hope." Shikamaru said. "I want the Five in Waves."

"Why?" Temari asked, "They're immortal, we'd just be killing avatars."

Gaara understood though, he smiled, "He's going to cast down the gods."

Shikamaru nodded and smirked slightly, "One thing we need is the public's support. If they think the Five truly are gods they'll get a major dose of reality when they realize they're just ninja. When we kill them, or at least their avatars and tare their shrines down we'll be sending a message."

Sasuke nodded slightly, "So they see ninja can tare down their so-called gods, won't they just think we're demons overrunning heaven?"

"If they think they're in heaven now." Gaara shrugged. "In the end we can't predict what everyone will think but we can defeat the Five and show them that they're not gods, just ninja like us. More powerful than the average sure, but still mortal."

"The defeats need to be fairly public as well," Shikamaru said, "While most ninja are on objective I would like to ask that the Mizukage and Kazekage remain with you Sasuke. We know that the Five will go after you. We need to let the people see their demigods defeated by our kings, the Kages."

"And their guard," Karin added, "Juugo and I will be with Suigetsu-sama and Sasuke-kun, you'll have nothing to fear, Kazekage-san."

Gaara noticed Matsuri and Temari both bristle at Karin's attitude but he just chuckled, "Of course I won't. Having such an effective sensor with us will help us determine if the Five attempt to move to different bodies as well."

"Indeed." Shikamaru said calmly, "But once Waves is finished we need to move down our paths to the capital immediately. We get no breaks."

"You mean," Sasuke said, "That we won't be rallying?"

"We'll rally," Shikamaru clarified, "but not for long. We take the place and we stay long enough to form our ranks and run, remember Wind's army is bound to be bearing down on us too."

"Won't that put the Kazekage's forces under threat?" Karin asked.

Gaara shook his head, "They won't find us. They'll reach Waves and find us all gone, my forces will bypass them and we'll move on Sunagakure."

"What if they find you?" Sasuke asked.

"Then I guess we'll have a fight on our hands, won't we?" Temari laughed bitterly.

"And the sooner we get out of Waves the better chance the Suna forces have of avoiding the Wind soldiers and the better chance we all have of not being there when they arrive."

"That also means that they might show up as reinforcements for our enemies." Sakura added, "We can't play around at all. You all understand now why once the battle in Waves is over we need to move out as soon as we can."

"So no protracted war." Sasuke said, sounding like he approved.

"Obviously," Gaara grunted, "let's face it. They'd win any battle of attrition."

"We show up, smash some things, kill some demigods, then go on to slay the big pretender himself. Sounds good." Suigetsu said.

"And while we're fighting in Waves Lightning should be fighting Earth, if both battles are won Orochimaru will be feeling the pressure." Karin added, "So this map shows us the paths we're supposed to take, right?"

"Right," Matsuri said, "The gold line leading to Sunagakure will be the Kazekage's forces of course. The blue, green and white lines leading to Konohagakure are Water, Leaf and Cloud respectively."

"Why so much firepower for Otogakure?" Suigetsu asked, "I mean Water and Leaf I understand, but why not sent Cloud to Earth, they're as much our enemies as Sound."

"When we control the capital we can send the imperial army to Earth along with our combined Shinobi force to finally get rid of Iwagakure's treachery." Shikamaru said.

"So our course is set." Suigetsu said, "We thrash Otogakure until it's Konohagakure again, then we wipe Iwagakure off the face of the map."

"Sounds simple enough." Shikamaru said, "But it's the practice that's going to be hard."

Gaara nodded, "Well . . . I assume everyone's gotten their Genin teams assembled for the first exam? Where are the examiners?"

"Waiting outside." Shikamaru said.

"Let them in." Sasuke grunted.

Gaara nodded as the two--not three--Special Jounin were showed into the room, and he immediately asked "Where's the third? Wasn't it Sarutobi?"

"Yes, uh . . . she is dealing with a minor problem, if we're going to begin the exam now I'm ready to stand in for her and relay your instructions to her." Kyoko said.

Gaara nodded, and Suigetsu said "Then we'll start assembling the teams, send your Genin squads over to the _Amagiri_, we'll hold the first exam there. We'll move them for the second exam, and then let them rest up for the third."

The two special Jounin nodded and they were dismissed but Gaara noted that Shikamaru made a subtle gesture for them to stay. Suigetsu seemed to be in a rush to leave though; he gathered his staff and simply left.

Gaara was about to go when Shikamaru said "Uh, Temari, there's one other thing . . ."

Sakura had a worried look so Gaara knew this little bit of information was bound to be good.

"We uh . . . we seem to have an unexpected passenger on our ship," Shikamaru said quietly, "we'll need to get her back to the island before we do anything else."

"Why?" Temari asked, "Anyone who wants to fight is an asset, I say."

"This person's five." Shikamaru said dryly.

Temari laughed, "Oh c'mon, Hatake Kakashi was a Chuunin at age six, remember? But yeah, okay, I can see why you'd be worried. I don't see what we can do about--"

"It's Sumiko." Shikamaru added.

Temari stared at Shikamaru for a good long time, and then said in an uncertain tone, "What are you, kidding? What kind of sense of humor is that? I mean--"

"It's true, sensei." Kyoko added helpfully, "Yomiko found her, she's in our quarters."

"And how did that happen?" Temari asked.

Gaara raised his hand, "Never mind that, how do we fix it? We can't turn back. When did you find her?"

"I realized she must be on the ships about an hour into the voyage but we didn't find her until just half an hour before the meeting--at least that's when Yomiko found me to tell me. She apparently knew where Sumiko was for most of the trip."

"Damn it!" Temari shouted, "I can't just fly her back, not from this far out to sea!"

"What about the Mist ninja?" Matsuri asked, "Can't we just ask them to do something? They have a fleet; they won't miss a single skiff."

"I thought about that," Shikamaru grunted, "but we can't ask them to spare a whole ship on the eve of the invasion--"

"The hell we--" Temari was shouting but Gaara stood up quickly and held his hand out to silence her.

"That's not all there is to it, is there?"

Shikamaru nodded, confirming Gaara's suspicions.

Shikamaru didn't trust the Mizukage, which was why he'd waited until the man had left the room before mentioning that he needed to say something else.

And it made perfect sense; if Suigetsu got custody of the first born child of the Nara clan he'd have control of both Shikamaru and Temari.

He'd earn himself two incredibly dangerous enemies, but nevertheless . . .

"We can't let the Mizukage know that Sumiko is with the fleet."

"So give her over to me," Temari said, "I'm going into less danger."

"You're going to try to bypass an entire army." Shikamaru said dryly.

"Yeah, _bypass_." Temari said.

"We could pick a failed Genin team and send them back with her," Nao suggested, "A Konoha team."

"We need every ninja." Neji said, "Sumiko can stay on the boat."

"With strangers?" Temari scoffed.

"It's going to Lightning if it survives the naval battle to begin with," Sakura said, "Who would we leave her in the care of? We don't have any agents in the city; Hinata's taken the Hyuga clan out to meet Naruto."

"So . . . what are we doing?" Temari demanded.

"Right now we're holding the Chuunin exam, while Yomiko and Kyoko are busy with their exams we'll take care of Sumiko."

Gaara nodded slowly, "I'm sure Sakura-san will be willing to stand in for you in the judging."

"Sure." Sakura nodded.

Gaara turned to Temari and said "Whatever happens Sumiko-chan will come to no harm, if necessary I will have Matsuri take her back to the island personally."

"Wh-what?" Matsuri gawked, "I-I mean yes, Gaara-sensei, I'll do it. Don't you want me in the--"

"Of course, but I also trust you with the life of my niece." Gaara said simply.

The kunoichi nodded and followed Gaara out of the room.

Time for the exams to begin.

* * *

Naomasa watched anxiously as Yomiko's problem solving test went through without much incident.

Then for Kyoko's test the teams dispersed to hunt her familiars. There were seventeen teams left at that point, Kyoko set out eight familiars and gave the teams the same orders Shikamaru had given Nao, Yomiko and Kotaro on their first mission.

Catch the summoned weasel without disturbing anyone on the ships.

So even though there were eight weasels only six teams passed.

Six teams, eighteen people.

Some were older, some were younger, and Naomasa would be in charge of all of their lives.

He was surprised when Haruno Sakura of all people appeared by his side and said "Don't fret on your mission, Ishida. The battlefield is going to be chaos; the environment where Ninja thrive. They're all ninja; they're all ready to lay their lives down for this. If the worst should happen, it's not your fault."

Nao shook his head, "Maybe not . . . but I haven't got a good track record with Chuunin exams."

"Didn't you and your entire squad pass your very first?" Sakura asked with raised eyebrows.

"I didn't mean the outcome, I mean the actual events." Nao said. "Yomiko got us through the first exam; we got a bye on the second."

"You got your scroll." Sakura said.

"Hitomi--uh, I mean Hijiri got us that scroll, we didn't get it ourselves." Nao said.

"Again, you got your scroll. It doesn't matter who gets it out of the enemy's hands." Sakura shrugged.

Nao shrugged too, "Well sure . . . but in the final exam I . . ."

"Saved the life of your fellow Shinobi with a strategy that I'm sure made your sensei proud." Sakura said calmly. "These Genin are in good hands, Ishida."

Nao smiled weakly, but he wasn't so sure.

Sakura smiled and said "If worse comes to worse I'll be close by, Neji too. We'll be clearing the way of major opposition along with Hijiri's teams, so the enemy's main hammer won't be falling on your Genin squads."

Hijiri? Hitomi was going to be . . .

Nao forced thoughts of Hitomi from his mind.

_Don't think about her, you have eighteen lives in your hands._ He thought.

He put his hands in his pockets and said to Sakura, "Thanks for your reassurance, Sensei . . . I'll do my best."

"And that'll be enough." Sakura said, taking her leave.

Nao reflected on how grateful he was that Sakura, with whom he was not overly familiar, had taken the time to reassure him.

Had it been Shikamaru-sensei he'd probably have written it off as older brotherly advice, if it'd been Yomiko or Kyoko he'd have written it off as mere friendship.

Stupid since advice and friendship weren't things that one just casually discarded after all. But he knew that this conversation with Sakura, the longest they'd ever had was what would have had the largest impact of anything.

So he sort of wondered if Shikamaru-sensei had asked her to talk to him.

But it didn't matter, he felt a little better all the same, and even if Shikamaru-sensei had rigged it it still felt good to know that his sensei knew him well enough to know to do so.

If he knew him that well it gave Nao more faith in his Sensei's decision to put him in charge of an exam.

And after all, he wouldn't be alone."

He wondered briefly about Hitomi.

Should he talk to her too? No. No point, there was nothing to say and knowing she would be near his squads might just make her uncomfortable.

He wondered where she was though . . . probably asleep like most everyone else.

He sighed.

One more day of sailing, the teams would rest up during that time and then that evening they'd be informed of their roles in the final exam.

Then the "fun" began . . . a battle with only one acceptable conclusion; victory.

No withdraw, no surrender, the ninja of the four nations would rush into the fray against their enemies and they would fight to the last man if necessary to secure their right to exist.

War. Allegedly a ninja's _reason _to exist . . .

Nao clenched his fists in his pockets and thought bitterly that he was only seventeen and already he'd seen more bloodshed than most men thrice his age.

Still he'd taken only one life. Rather than feeling proud of the fact though he now felt ashamed, as if it left him ill prepared for the role he now had to play as one of Konoha's last champions.

He looked at the moon as Yomiko and Kyoko came to stand with him.

He wished Hitomi were there.

He wished he were ready to be a hero.

He wished a lot of things, but he hoped too.

He hoped Shikamaru-sensei could outthink Orochimaru.

He hoped Naruto-sama came back safely.

He hoped they won.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Yep, as you can clearly see I skipped the first two exams. This was always my plan because I didn't want to have to think up specifics for them and because we have no named Genin participating.

And no, I won't name any of the Genin either, I'm well aware of the swollen cast.


	31. Proposition

**Chapter Thirty**

Shikamaru shook his head, "My mother's probably beside herself with worry," He said, "hopefully Shikaru's okay."

"Why, was he supposed to come along too?" Temari snapped.

Shikamaru laughed but Temari just glared, "Come on, this is really kind of impressive."

"And really kind of your fault. If you'd been better rested you'd have noticed right away that her picture meant something."

"The way you did?" He asked, and Temari rolled her eyes.

He watched Sumiko, fast asleep on his bunk. They'd moved her out of Yomiko and Kyoko's quarters so the two could get some sleep after their exams. It was the dead of night, Shikamaru should have been asleep too except of course he was so used to staying awake that besides the odd head jolt he almost didn't realize he hadn't slept in . . . huh.

He smiled, "Our five year old infiltrated a ship full of ninja, Temari. It's a problem that she's here and it'll be a bother getting her back but we should at least be proud of her."

"She could have died. What if she decided to hide in a cargo compartment and something came loose and crushed her? What if she were hiding _in _a crate, and it was covered up by other crates? What if she--"

"Stop that," Shikamaru scoffed, "save that kind of stuff for her, I already considered all of it while I was _looking _for her. You at least got to know she was safe right after you found out she was here you ungrateful, troublesome--"

"Ungrateful?" Temari hissed, not shouting least she wake her five year old, "_Ungrateful_? For what? For your telling our daughter it was okay to come to war?"

"I said her picture was nice!" Shikamaru groaned.

"Are you Konoha's genius or not?" Temari demanded, "How did that escape you?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "It didn't. I mean it did, and it didn't. I noticed something was off about the picture but I didn't pay it any further attention. I should have, but I didn't. I had a lot on my mind."

Temari sat down on the bunk next to Sumiko, careful not to wake the child.

She looked at Shikamaru and whispered the very thing that'd been going through his own mind for quite a while; "If you missed something _this _important . . . what else do you think you might have--"

"I don't know." He answered flatly. "All the more reason for you to be on your own, thinking tactically for Suna's betterment. I might not be as capable with Konoha's invasion as I thought."

Temari held her face in her hands for a moment, it was something Shikamaru had never seen her do.

She pulled them away slowly and whispered "Shikamaru, this is really scary. Not just because Sumiko is on the ship but because . . . if you're having doubts about yourself then we really are in trouble."

"I'm just one man." Shikamaru scoffed.

"No! No you're not!" Temari snapped, "You're the head ninja of the village exiled to shadows, Gaara is the Kazekage of the Sand ninja but _you _were the leader of the damn village! You've wielded the power of a Kage for three years, you've done it well enough but now that the time has come to take back what's ours you're . . . you're what? Falling apart? It's almost like you're wasting away. You work, and you work, and you question yourself and you second guess yourself, you listen to bastards like Uchiha and ignore your supporters!"

"I _thought _I had the defense of Konoha so well planned," Shikamaru exploded, then checked himself, remembering the sleeping child, "I thought it was perfect, Temari, I thought we'd break their spirits and it worst came we'd at least kill Kabuto. They sent wave after wave at us Temari, we killed so many people, I think more men died in the days of Konoha's fall than had died the entire previous year!"

"So they paid a terrible price for their prize," Temari said softly, "That's not your fault. Your calculations were right, they broke, they tried to run, you didn't know there would be reinforcements."

"I did!" Shikamaru said, "I knew there would be, I knew they'd have _something_, but I didn't think it'd be _that _many, I didn't think that we'd have exhausted our arrows, and our shuriken, that our men and women would be _that _close to dying of exhaustion, I didn't think our enemies would be _that _determined to die."

"And you got scared." Temari reasoned.

"You're right!" Shikamaru whispered harshly, "I did. It scares me that people like that exist, men like Kabuto or Orochimaru who are so determined to have their own way they don't care how many of their followers die let alone their enemies. It scares me that men followed them, that men, many of them no doubt _good _men, gave their _lives _for something they believed in that to me is as idiotic as slamming your head into a wall! It scares me that those men are in control of the entire known world, Temari, that we have not one but two children who're going to have to inherit a world run by madmen!

"I have to fight, and I have to ask good men and women to fight by my side, by the side of our Hokage, to trust me and my plans, plans that failed them before when they lost their homes by the way! I have to go into battle with an enemy whose had years to prepare for us, I have to out think our enemies from the Emperor himself who is _easily _as smart as I am, to every random regional lieutenant we might come across. I have to invade my homeland, I have to give orders I _know _are going to kill people who're walking away from three years of peace and relative security because now _I_ am the madman, I'm the one who's so determined to have his way."

He fell back into his chair and hook his head, he closed his eyes and felt a sharp pain in his stomach, "I'm also growing increasingly sure that I have an ulcer."

Temari laughed.

"What?" Shikamaru demanded.

Temari smiled weakly, "It's just . . . it really wouldn't surprise me. I mean you're carrying the entire world on your shoulders, you're under a lot of stress."

"Stress doesn't cause stomach ulcers, that's an old wives' tale." Shikamaru grunted.

"Tell that to your stressed stomach, darling." Temari said brightly.

Shikamaru smiled weakly at her and sighed.

Temari said "You're not a god, it's normal to feel like you're not good enough . . . but the truth is you're going to go down in history as one of the greatest strategists of our time, probably of any time I don't think anything this scale has happened since the five Great Villages were founded. Nara Shikamaru, the Leaf Village's Genius, the man who led the people to victory against a false god."

"Naruto's going to be the one leading the people to victory in Konoha. You and Gaara in Suna." Shikamaru said.

"We'll be leading the charge in Suna, Naruto will lead the charge in Konoha, but _you _Shikamaru, you're leading the people, you're leading all of us. We're all looking to you for our cues, for our strategies. I know it's hard, I know it's stressful but you need to man up and do it anyway. You _are _the man I married, aren't you?"

Shikamaru smiled weakly, "Yes, Temari-chan, I am."

"Really? You haven't hidden him have you? This isn't some Genjutsu?"

"Pretty sure."

"Because my husband wouldn't say "Oh it's too hard" he'd say "this is troublesome" then he'd do the impossible anyway." Temari said.

Shikamaru watched her and said "How far do you expect me to go?"

It was an odd question, and he knew Temari understood what he meant.

She folded her arms, "You don't want to be Emperor, but you _could _be. You _could _rule this entire world . . . but you're smart enough to know better. How far do I want you to go? Victory, some public recognition, maybe a title I'll never call you by, then just a small house large enough for us, our three children--"

"Two children." He interrupted her.

"_Three _children," she reaffirmed.

Shikamaru took a deep breath, he looked at Temari, "But what about the things I must have missed?"

"Let it go for now. Think on it, it'll come to you. If you're desperate ask Emiko if you've missed anything, I'm sure she can't tell you what it is but she'll tell you if you did."

"She could probably guess a good way to get Sumiko back home too." Shikamaru grunted.

"Yeah . . . good job thinking to ask her _before _it got dark."

"She might still be awake." Shikamaru said defensively, but he laughed and looked at Sumiko, "we have to do _something _about our daughter, Temari."

"You haven't considered . . ." Temari seemed embarrassed, then she whispered, "you haven't considered actually letting her strategize, have you?"

"No." Shikamaru said flatly. "If she were at least twelve, a Genin's age, I'd say 'sure' but five? She can't possibly be mature enough for it yet, can't defend herself and if anything happened to her--"

"Easy, I'm with you on that. I only brought it up because . . . well it's not like you to draw such a blank about something so important. I was just wondering if maybe part of you didn't secretly want her to be here."

"Believe me, no part of me wants that." Shikamaru grunted. He considered, "Maybe . . . I mean . . . if I taught her the Shadow Possession--"

"She can't learn it in a day, and a day's all we have before we engage the enemy." Temari said.

"I suppose." Shikamaru admitted.

"Try I guess . . . hey wait a minute!" Temari said, "Suppose . . . I mean if we only . . . no, that'd be mine, what about yours?"

"What?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, missing her meaning this time.

"I was going to say maybe if I put her in the care of the weasels, let them take her with them to their burrow she'd be safe during the battle, if anything happened to me Kyoko could summon her back."

"She'd need to sign a contract wouldn't she? And she'd have to have permission. Besides, if something happened to you _and _Kyoko--"

"Right, but say you summoned a deer, then your _mother _back on the island _also _summoned that deer . . ." Temari trailed off.

Shikamaru shrugged, "Not bad for a bothersome bully of a woman. As soon as dawn breaks I'll send a messenger bird, it should make it back in time that we can send Sumiko with the deer well before the battle begins."

Temari smiled and yawned, "Well . . . good night then . . . why don't I take Sumiko with me and you can go see Sakura about that stomach pain before you got to sleep?"

"You assume I'll even sleep." Shikamaru grunted.

Temari frowned, "Shikamaru . . . all I need is one night with you and I can _have _a third child, but I can't _raise _a third child without you."

"Oh I'm fairly sure you could." Shikamaru grunted.

Temari looked at him, "Please get some sleep. Take care of yourself, you're not allowed to die until at least a minute after I do."

"Shouldn't I get to die three years after you do, old gal?" He asked with a smirk.

Temari laughed as she picked up the still sleeping Sumiko, "Please, women have longer life-spans than men; I'm really the one giving up time."

Shikamaru smiled and Temari gave him a very stern look, "See Sakura."

"She's probably asleep."

"Then see her in the morning." Temari said, "Just make sure you see her."

"You know the two of you can just stay here tonight," Shikamaru said, "No point going back to your ship. You two can sleep on the bunk."

"And you'll sleep . . ." Temari trailed off, waiting for explanation.

"Tomorrow?" Shikamaru offered, Temari shook her head.

"It's lucky for you I'm holding our daughter, or I'd hit you on the head so damn hard . . . go to sleep, Shikamaru."

"Let me walk you to your ship then." He said.

"Right, there could be _sharks_." Temari said sarcastically.

"Don't be ridiculous woman, you're not _swimming _there." Shikamaru said, pretending he hadn't detected her sarcasm.

He smiled as he and Temari left his quarters for the above-deck.

It was strange but airing his fears and seeing Temari more or less unshaken by them had made him feel better.

It also made him more determined to live up to the faith she was showing in him.

It also made him more afraid that he couldn't.

Still, mostly he felt better.

* * *

Sasuke took a calming breath as Karin leaned over his shoulder to point out her proposed path on the map, "This way," She said, "we lose half a day, but we'll cross over Leaf's path, so if Lightning and Cloud can't stop Earth and Stone we'll have Leaf as a buffer between them and us instead of the other way around."

Sasuke glanced at Karin, she was laying it on _thick _tonight.

Revealing gown, in his quarters unannounced in the middle of the night, using any excuse to hang onto or lean over him.

He closed his eyes and said "Karin, this is a lovely strategy, just as nice as it was when you showed it to me after the first Chuunin exam . . . Suigetsu-sama already approved of it, I have no say."

"True." Karin said, "I guess that suggests I'm here for another reason . . . but don't read too much into it." She said slyly.

Sasuke took a deep breath and said "Well since you're here why don't you just cut the crap and _tell _me what I want to know?"

She gazed levelly at him, "You know . . . I think I will. But the information is going to cost you."

Sasuke continued to take deep, calming breaths, "I don't have anything you want, Karin."

"You _are _what I want, Sasuke-kun." Karin purred, removing her glasses. "What do you say . . . an arrangement; one night, one name."

"Unacceptable." Sasuke said coldly.

"Fine, one night for two names and I tell you who killed the last Mizukage."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he glared at Karin, "What? So you _know_?"

"Oh-ho-ho, can't feign disinterest now, Sasuke-kun." Karin said confidently.

Sasuke clenched a fist, "Tell me now or Suigetsu loses his chief strategist."

"Yes, yes, that sort of talk just excites me," Karin said dryly, "Are we doing this or not?"

"I'm not even tempted." Sasuke scoffed.

"You really want to be _that _difficult? Am I ugly or something?" Karin asked.

Sasuke's fists were shaking, "Tell me a name."

"Karin."

"Not _your _name, tell me one of the names Suigetsu's after, someone worth me sparing your life right now!" Sasuke barked.

"I'm not afraid of you, Sasuke-kun. Juugo's right next door, if you get too upset he'll sense the aggression and we'll have _him _in here trying to kill the both of us. Then, idiot though he may be, Suigetsu's bound to wake up and intervene too. You can't threaten me and honestly my terms aren't bad." She began to unbutton her night gown, "So?" She asked.

"Get the hell out of my quarters." Sasuke said firmly.

"That's how it is then?" Karin asked.

"That's how it'll _always _be." Sasuke said.

"Is it Sakura-chan? Suppose you could have us both . . . I'm a big girl, I can share."

"I think I mentioned something about getting the hell out." Sasuke said coldly.

Karin put her glasses on and headed for the door, then she suddenly hesitated, spun around, grabbed her map and rolled it up.

She head for the door again, then said "Half the names, who killed the last Mizukage, how they did it _and _my personal loyalty . . . one night, and we don't even have to wake up in the same part of the _ship_, I'll leave as soon as we finish."

"Why are you so determined?" Sasuke demanded.

"Purposes of manipulation;" Karin said coolly "if Suigetsu knows I'm sleeping with you it'll make him wary of giving me menial tasks of flaunting his power because he'll be afraid of what an alliance between us strengthened by the loving bonds of sex can achieve against him. Furthermore I'm pretty sure you'll warm up to me afterwards, and I still have the other half of the list of names in case a good opportunity comes up for a second spin. What do you say, Sasuke-kun?"

"Oh the answer's still the same," Sasuke said, "if anything I'm a little disappointed in you. Why don't you just go sleep with Suigetsu if you're so desperate?"

"Because a woman's got to have her self respect, doesn't she?" Karin scoffed, "this isn't about desperation; it's about desire. My desire for you. I've wanted you for years, we haven't always been on the best of terms but I honestly believe that I could make you happy, at least for a night if not your whole life."

Sasuke shook his head, "I'm not in love with you Karin."

"Of course not, you distance me." Karin said calmly, "If you open up and let me get close to you--in every possible meaning of the word that is--we could be so insanely happy."

Sasuke closed his eyes.

One night, and she'd tell him almost everything, even things he hadn't thought he could get from her.

And her promise of loyalty?

"What do you mean by your personal loyalty?" Sasuke asked.

"What does loyalty mean to you, Sasuke? If you were loyal to me what would that entail? What do you believe my loyalty to you would mean?" Karin asked, and Sasuke saw something he didn't like in her eyes.

Triumph.

She knew, or at least _thought _she knew how this was going to end.

Sasuke closed his eyes and felt Karin begin to massage his shoulders.

"Do we have a deal?" She asked.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **This is the chapter for this week, the bonus chapter for reaching two hundred reviews will follow once it's finished. I am trying to make it the last chapter of the arc.


	32. On the Horizon

**Chapter Thirty One**

Suigetsu sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as Karen entered his quarters.

She was fully dressed and she stood in the doorway calmly watching him from behind her glasses, in the dim light her expression was hidden from him but it wasn't dawn yet, he wasn't sure why she was already prepared for the day, or why she evidently expected the same from him.

"Need something?" He demanded, "Make it quick, I want to go back to sleep."

She folded her arms, "Oh I'm just here because of your insane sexual magnetism."

Suigetsu scrutinized her, for the briefest of half-waking moments he wondered if she were being serious but quickly rejected the idea as unacceptable even if she were. "I hate you so much." He decided.

"I'm glad." Karin put her hands on her hips.

"So?" Suigetsu asked, yawning. "Did it work?"

Karin didn't answer, at first Suigetsu supposed the fact that she was reporting to him now in the middle of the night fully dressed was a sign that her attempts to seduce Sasuke had failed or she would still be with him or at the very least bragging.

So this meant she'd failed to hook Sasuke, as he'd suspected she would. If he were a good friend he might have said something consoling . . .

"Maybe it's because you're ugly." He suggested.

She scoffed, "Shows how much you know."

Suigetsu shrugged and lay back on his bunk, "Well I'll tell you pretty much what I imagine Sasuke said . . . get out of my room before your hideous face shatters my mirror."

"You don't have a mirror, and watch yourself because I don't have to take that sort of attitude."

"So you have a reason for being here then?" Suigetsu demanded, yawning again.

Karin examined her nails and then spoke in a nonchalant tone. "Sasuke-kun knows who killed the former Mizukage. Just thought I'd tell you."

Suigetsu swore, "And why did you tell him that?" He demanded.

"Probably to distract him from how ugly I apparently am." Karin sneered.

Suigetsu slid off his bunk and got dressed, no point trying to sleep now, he was wide awake.

What was Karin playing at? Why had she told Sasuke the truth about the previous Mizukage?

A startling thought came over him then; had she _succeeded _in seducing Sasuke? Had he misjudged her chances? And if he had . . . would she still go along with the plan or would she make a whole new one? He'd hoped to have Sasuke under control before things got this far.

He strapped his sword to his back, Karin was still standing in the doorway and he kept from scowling at her. No point showing her that he was worried . . . because he _wasn't_, at least he told himself he wasn't.

"Well what are you staring at?" He asked in his usual tone, no point being nice and making her think he was groveling either.

"You act as if the world's come to an end. You _wanted_ me to tell Sasuke-kun didn't you?"

"Eventually, when I knew for sure he was on our side. Notbefore, not if there were a chance he might turn on us, I wanted to be there to help make him understand, you know that."

"And that's why _I'm_ the brains." Karin said smoothly, "You're stupid enough to think Sasuke would ever be on our side or understand what we're doing. He's on his own side, we have to make him think we are too . . . that's how his mind works, it's all about him. It's like he's the main character in a play."

Suigetsu straightened up, "So what now, then?"

"We carry on like nothing's different. I'll wake Juugo up, you'll get Sasuke-kun and we'll meet in the conference room and discuss the upcoming battle over coffee. Sasuke-kun will be fine, we'll make him think I'm his best friend until he finally gives us what we want . . . or at least gives me what I want." Karin said simply.

"And if he turns on us? You just gave him some pretty vital information and he can still pass it on to Konoha!" Suigetsu said.

"So what if he does? The former Mizukage was their enemy, the current Mizukage put his nation at risk to harbor them in their hour of need . . . what does it matter who killed who?" Karin asked. She smiled, "You certainly don't deserve it . . . but for now we're still on the same team, Suigetsu-_sama_." She said the honorific with sarcasm so thick it felt like she'd slapped him with it.

Suigetsu smirked at her, "For now, eh?"

"For as long as it takes until we get what we want . . . or until I get what I want." She said with a devilish smile that he had no problems seeing even in the near dark.

"Just remember who the Mizukage is." Suigetsu said.

"Just stick to my plan if you want to keep that job." Karin said.

Suigetsu scoffed. He'd gotten the job without her help . . . but he paid close attention to what Karin had said. She hadn't forgotten the lesson Sasuke taught her once upon a time, how quickly an alliance could change, how violently a friendship could end.

She'd told him honestly that she wouldn't help him if it came to blows with Sasuke, she'd spoken it like a boast but he supposed she'd meant it as a warning too.

If it came down to it, if their plans went belly up he'd have to be ready to handle Sasuke alone.

The Mizukage scoffed to himself.

If he were afraid of _anyone _he wouldn't be worthy of leading the Village Hidden in Mist.

Karin adjusted her glasses and said quietly, "You know, this is a dangerous game we're playing. It could get us both killed and even if it works it'll ruin several lives and end several more . . ."

"If there's no risk what's the point?" Suigetsu scoffed, "Since when are you against using people?"

Karin shrugged, "The people we're using can kill us both, which isn't normally the case for folks at our level. I guess I'm just not an adrenaline junkie."

"I'm not exactly wrestling a shark here." Suigetsu said.

"If that's what you think then you've been underestimating me. And here I would have thought you'd know better . . . especially after the former Mizukage."

* * *

"Try not to be nervous," Kaoru told her, "I'll try to keep them from biting your head off."

"Uh-huh." Hitomi grunted as they traveled through the woods. They were deep in the territory of the Lands of Sound, near where the borders of Rain and Waterfall met with the border of Fire.

They really had no spoken agreement, Hitomi didn't know how long she'd be with Kaoru or how long she'd visit his village before she set off on her own again. She wasn't looking to settle down, she wasn't interested in living the rest of her life as a farmer or bird keeper or whatever the heck Kaoru's people actually did, she hadn't actually bothered to ask.

_However_, she did feel comfortable around Kaoru. She liked his company and she trusted him, which made her feel more than a little concerned.

He reminded her of Naomasa a lot, except he was . . . well, the better option. He was her age, he didn't pressure her or insist, in fact she wasn't sure if he even liked her romantically at all which was great because she didn't _want _anyone liking her romantically.

And yet . . . if she were going to turn her back on being a ninja why not go all the way? Why not be a peasant, raise a family?

The thought had played through her mind repeatedly and it left her feeling uneasy. She knew her genetic defects shouldn't be passed on, it was her obligation to future generations not to contribute.

If more people had eyes like her . . . suffered painful childhoods because of their differences, how could she sleep at night knowing she was the cause?

And even if the eyes took hold, if she somehow founded a larger clan what then? Entire ninja clans were wiped out, it was rare but not unheard of. Because of their differences her descendants could be ostracized and exterminated.

Because they weren't like everyone else.

Matsuri had told her to name her first child after her . . . Hitomi didn't _have _children, wouldn't have children . . . would she?

Sometimes she wondered. If she hadn't gotten away from Nao he'd have wore her resistance down until eventually marriage seemed like a totally reasonable future. Marriage, children . . .

She could see her children doing well with Nao--a grown up Nao anyway--as their father, especially since they'd be wealthy, nobody would tease them because of their eyes, instead they'd lie and pretend to be their friends just as people had done to Naomasa when he was very young.

And if her kids never made the same realization Naomasa had, that those sort of friends weren't genuine or worth it, they might never have real friends, it'd be just as bad as being mocked and teased their whole lives.

Hitomi felt a little embarrassed even thinking about children. Her only suitor was . . . how old would Nao be now? She didn't even know how old _she _was anymore. How long had she been traveling? How long had she been with Sasuke?

How long had she been on her own?

Well . . . she wasn't really on her own anymore . . . but how far would she go with Kaoru? He was attractive, she enjoyed his company . . . she might _like _him, she wasn't sure. Did he like her?

She'd never asked, wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but here he was taking her home to his village in Waterfall, didn't that mean he liked her?

He was giving her a place to stay . . . a place where she could be safe, at least for a while. He was a former ninja, he must have felt safe there.

What would he ask of her in exchange for this safety?

She just couldn't shake the worry, most of the men she'd encountered wanted the same thing, something she didn't relish the thought of giving them.

Was Kaoru the same? He hadn't even tried to touch her to shake hands or anything, he seemed genuinely uninterested in her sexually . . . maybe he liked other men, that would be a relief.

Or maybe he just didn't think she was pretty . . . that'd be sort of nice too.

At the same time she had this weird feeling . . . she wanted him to think she was pretty and she wanted him to like _her_.

It was strange, she didn't like feeling that way. She'd known him for slightly more than a week, she didn't like the idea of settling down with someone she barely knew.

And yet . . . if he did ask her . . . what would she say?

She felt embarrassed, she was thinking stupid things, she needed to get her act together and remember where she was, who she was with, how dangerous their situation was.

They were ninja in a world where ninja weren't allowed to exist any longer.

She liked him because he was a kindred spirit, that was it. It was the two of them together against a hostile hateful world, that was why she trusted him. This wasn't love.

"We're almost there," He said as the moved through the trees and Hitomi could see with her sharp eyes that they were near a clearing.

She could hear water, maybe a river, she could hear birds.

They came out of the woods and through a clear field of grass she could see a collection of houses, fields, animals . . . people.

They were spotted almost right away but nobody acted.

Nobody rushed at them, no guards drew their weapons, no ninja intercepted them.

And why not? It was a peasant community, they probably had no defenders outside of Kaoru and whoever else might have formerly been a ninja.

"Come on," Kaoru said with a broad smile, "I can't wait to introduce you to everyone!"

Hitomi didn't budge. She hesitantly whispered, "I . . . uh . . . what would they make of me?"

He stopped walking and turned back to her, seeming confused, "They won't turn you in," He said, "You're here as my friend they won't shut you out. You're welcome in this village because I've welcomed you _and_," he pointed to the pouch where she kept the blue feathers she'd been given, "because the Guardian accepted you."

"I'm not really welcomed most places I go . . ." Hitomi said.

"You're welcome here, so come on. I have to introduce you to everyone," He smirked, "Maybe once you meet them you'll understand. We're not like most people, we don't see a ninja and freak out. For us, the good old days when ninja were a part of everyday life never left. You're just a person with a skill most of them don't have, they won't hate you for it, heck those of us with ninja skills sometimes have to do slight ninja work. No assassination, but you know, cat recovery and stuff. You can stay for as long as you want . . . stay forever if you want."

Hitomi nodded and followed Kaoru, her affection for him swelling at that moment. He liked her at least enough to offer her a place in his village, could this be her new life? Could she . . . forget her friends and just be happy? Would they understand? Would they . . . care? Maybe they were happy wherever they were . . . and she was so tired of looking for something when she had no way of knowing where to start or what to look for . . . the odds of her just stumbling upon them were so low why not just give up?

Her mind reminded her just meant something was bound to happen to make her unhappy soon enough. Her mind never wanted to let her be happy, so she ignored her mind for the time being. If there were some chance she could be happy for at least a little while she wanted to take it . . .

Not a good decision but she didn't know it then.

They reached the houses and people finally looked up to take notice of them, one old man looked up from a fishing net he was mending and laughed, "She's a cute one. Is this why you wanted to go alone, boy?"

Kaoru laughed, "I didn't know I'd meet her, Uncle. Hitomi, this is my Uncle, Uncle this is Hitomi."

There were several such introductions, Kaoru showed Hitomi to everyone in his village, to his brother-in-law who kept alternating between apologizing for making Kaoru go on the trip alone and thanking him for letting him stay in the village and witness the birth of his child--a boy, it turned out.

"That's great," Kaoru said and Hitomi nodded nervously.

Kaoru's brother-in-law smirked at Hitomi, "So I guess you found someone else to travel with, huh?"

"Cute, isn't she?" Kaoru's uncle snickered.

"Oh yeah, Keika's going to be mad." Kaoru's brother-in-law laughed.

"What?" Kaoru sounded surprised, "Keika's not going to be made just because I've made a new friend."

"If your friend weren't a cute girl I'd agree." A woman, Kaoru had introduced her as one of his cousins smirked.

Hitomi frowned, "Can everyone stop calling me cute?" She asked.

"Does it bother you?" Kaoru's cousin sounded surprised.

"You're probably making her nervous," Kaoru scolded.

"We're harmless." Kaoru's uncle assured Hitomi, "We just think it's funny . . . see, Kaoru traveling alone with you, and you being so pretty . . . it looks kind of suspicious."

"But I never--" Hitomi began but Kaoru's cousin interrupted her with a laugh.

"We know dear, Kaoru would never cheat on Keika."

Cheat on . . . Kaoru had a girlfriend?

"How _is _Keika, anyway?" Kaoru asked, sounding irritated, "Did she come back?"

"From what?" Hitomi asked, "Was she on a pilgrimage too?"

"No, she just . . . wanders. She comes and goes whenever she feels like it, she says she's never revisited any place as often as she revisits our village and we all know why that is, don't we Kaoru?" Kaoru's cousin smirked.

"Shut up." Kaoru said, blushing. "She's back then?"

"She came back the day after you left . . . and grandma's suspicions about her were right." Kaoru's cousin said. "She's a little more . . . what's the word . . . oh yeah; _pregnant_ than she was last time we saw her."

* * *

Nao smirked at Hitomi, who looked over her shoulder at him.

He wanted to go over and talk to her but decided he'd better not. He'd slept for a couple of hours and then got restless and came above deck to clear his head. He'd just been thinking in the slow dawn it might be a pretty nice setting to meet Hitomi and no sooner had the thought occurred to him then he noticed her leaning against a railing.

Almost as if she'd materialized there just because he thought of her . . .

She tilted her head, indicating he should come to her, and though the invitation was surprising he didn't pass it up.

He walked over to her and leaned against the rail of the ship as she was.

He noticed in the dim light of the rising sun that she seemed a bit off colored. "You feeling all right?"

"No, not really." Hitomi grumbled.

"Sea sick?"

"I guess. It happens sometimes." Hitomi said.

Nao was quiet for a moment, part of him wondered if Hitomi had motioned him over just to hold onto her in case she needed to lean over the side of the ship and . . .

He smiled, "I thought you'd know how to keep yourself from throwing up."

"What?" Hitomi grumbled.

"My mother once said that one of the first things she learned when she was pregnant was how to stop herself from puking." Nao explained.

"I'm not pregnant." Hitomi said, sounding confused.

"Well I figure, but I mean didn't you learn that when you were?"

"Your mother must have some special ability, Nao. When I need to "puke" it just happens, I don't get to negotiate with it . . . not for any extended period anyway."

"Huh. I guess it doesn't matter."

But she took a very deep breath and said "I owe you."

"What's that?" Nao asked.

"You had several seconds left . . ." Hitomi grumbled, "You'd have won."

"Same as before, Hitomi . . . I don't want to force you." Nao said, "When you're ready to show me your eyes . . . really it doesn't even matter. I mean you and I . . . we're never going to . . ."

"You understand age is a big part of that?" Hitomi asked.

"Who, besides you, actually cares?" Nao scoffed, "What, do you think that just because I'm seventeen everyone would consider you some sort of child molester?"

"Duh!" Hitomi scoffed, "They'd say I was putting the moves on you back when you were twelve!"

"Weren't you?" Nao smirked.

"Of course not!" Hitomi hissed.

Nao looked at her and whispered, "I'm jealous of him. The guy who won your heart . . . what ever happened to him?"

"Nothing." Hitomi said, "The guy you're envisioning doesn't exist. No man ever won my heart."

Nao frowned, "So you just decided to do it for fun? Had a kid for the adventure? I know you better than that . . ."

Hitomi closed her eyes, then she sighed. "Like I said, I owe you. So choose . . . this or my eyes."

"What?" Nao asked.

"Either I'll show you my eyes, or we'll continue this uncomfortable conversation."

Nao smiled, "Neither. I'll save your debt for when I need to borrow money."

Hitomi smiled weakly and whispered "I . . . you know . . . I mean . . ." this continued for a few moments until Nao interrupted her.

"Doesn't it confuse you when I'm the more mature one?" He asked with a smile.

"Shut up." Hitomi blushed.

"Uh-huh." Nao smirked. "I love you." He said flatly, "I love you enough to . . . let go of you. To let you go off and do whatever you choose."

Hitomi looked away and whispered, "You and I . . . we won't even survive this war, you know."

"We will." Nao said. He smiled, "What do you say we make a deal? When the war's over if we're both still alive you and I will go on a date. No marriage, no strings, just one date."

Hitomi shook her head, "You'll have a girlfriend by then."

"What makes you say that?"

"You're on a team with two beautiful girls," Hitomi said, "and you could have either one of them, maybe both if you just put a little effort into it. Personally I'd go with Yomiko, she's known you longer, but then again since you seem to prefer older girls Kyoko is a year your senior, that's far less creepy than five."

Nao laughed, "You're insane. Is this jealousy?"

"It's reason, it's logic. They like you, Nao and it'd be much more appropriate."

"No they don't. Kyoko and I . . . I know it _looks _like we're into each other but we're not. We've talked about this, we couldn't fall in love if we tried."

"And Yomiko?" Hitomi asked.

"She's the same as you." Nao shrugged, "She'd have to see me as an equal before she ever even considered being with me."

"You think I don't see you as an equal?" Hitomi sounded surprised, then amended, "I mean you think _Yomiko _doesn't?"

"Well it's true isn't it?" Nao asked. "Yomiko is always looking down on me, even when she means to be friendly. And _you_, come on. You've _said _we're not equal; you're older, you're higher rank, you're more skilled, I'm nothing to you."

"I can't believe you think that . . . stupid." Hitomi said softly. She hesitated then whispered, "Just ask Endo, or even your older sister . . . I . . . these . . ." she frowned, "I don't wear my goggles when you're not around."

Nao frowned, "What does that mean?"

"Think on it." Hitomi said softly.

Nao hesitated, "It's a bigger deal if I see your eyes than if they do . . . why?" He asked.

Hitomi didn't answer at first, then she whispered "Because what you think of me matters more than what anyone else does . . . I want to seem perfect even though I know I'm not."

"You are too." Nao laughed, "Even if your eyes are compounded like a bug's, or if you have antennae instead of actual eyes I'd still think you were gorgeous."

"I don't have antennae." Hitomi said.

"Good because I was bluffing there." Nao admitted. He felt nervous, but he reached out and held Hitomi's hand.

She didn't pull her hand away or rebuke him, instead she actually leaned towards him a bit, resting her shoulder against his, the faintest traces of a smile creeping over her lips.

It was for the briefest of moments and then she seemed to realize what she was doing and she moved away under pretense of needing to lean over the side of the ship, but in truth her color was normal again . . . except for the blushing.

Her head snapped up though and she seemed to be scanning the horizon. She swore, Nao strained his eyes to see whatever she saw. Hitomi bristled as the alarms on one of the furthest allied ships began to blare.

"What is it?" Nao grumbled, feeling irritated.

"They're early." Hitomi said calmly.

"Who?" Nao asked.

"The other fleet." Hitomi said, stepping away from the railing.

"Lightning's fleet?" Nao groaned, hating their allies just then.

"Guess again." The young woman laughed bitterly.

All around them sailors, soldiers, samurai and ninja woken from their rest rushed to the battle stations and the two of them could be no different.

They were Jounin, they had places to be, their own stations. Their moment however brief was over, and Naomasa would have been lying if he tried to pretend he wasn't just a little bit outraged.

It'd been going so well . . . war really was no respecter of romance.

**To Be Continued . . .**

* * *

**Note**: Aha! Arc 1 is complete. And this is the bonus chapter for two hundred reviews, thanks for all the support and the words of encouragment and the criticism too, I pay attention to both. The weekly chapter will be posted on the weekend just as usual. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it ran a bit long but hopefully nobody minds. The next arc--_Invasion--_begins with a blast!


	33. Incomplete Ninja Index III

**Note: **Just look at this. Forty eight normal entries, twenty one "departed" entries even when I cheat and count the entirety of Team Chiwa and all of Team Yamanaka as single entries, that's _a lot _of writing. So much writing it isn't actually finished yet, as a matter of fact.

So for now to hold everyone over is a fast reference list of the cast of original characters. There are some light spoilers but nothing plot breaking.

I'll let everyone know when the index is fully completed. For now I feel the new "number - name - brief descriptor" should be enough to function as a quick reminder.

**Ninja Index III**

**EXILED - V01**

001 - Sarutobi Yomiko - _Bossy daughter of Asuma_

002 - Ishida Naomasa - _Accidentally too focused on character_

003 - Kyoko - _Hot quiet weird redhead_

004 - Hirate Akira - _Wind general who aided Konoha's evacuation_

005 - Hirate Emiko - _Seemingly incapable of guessing wrong_

006 - Hijiri Hitomi - _Gloomy Jounin with issues_

007 - Nara Sumiko - _Temari and Shikamaru's daughter_

008 - Nara Shikaru - _Shikamaru and Temari's son_

009 - Akimichi Chouryo - _Chouji and Ino's son_

010 - Akimichi Inomi - _Ino and Chouji's daughter_

011 - Ashihara Saeki - _Hitomi's Daughter?_

**SOUND - V02**

012 - Akuma Shiroi - _Hyuga branch member out for vengeance_

013 - Hattori Kasumi - _Hattori outcast and Cloud traitor_

014 - Akuma Kurai - _Bug herder joined The Five for love_

015 - Yukio - _A prideful ninja seeking to improve himself at any cost_

016 - Hatake Kotaro - _Shikamaru's protégé, Kakashi and Anko's son_

017 - Okatsu - _The master of ninja training_

018 - Oedo Daisuke _- Leader of the Konoha resistance_

019 - Ishida Eri - _Can climb virtually any surface without chakra focus_

020 - Ryu - _Joined Sound to support his friend_

021 - Akuma Saizo - _Kurai and Shiroi's son_

022 - Syako - _The spy loyal only to herself_

023 - Prisoner Number One-Six-Eight - _A test subject of Kabuto's_

**WATER - V03**

024 - Ito Yoshi - _Admiral-General of Water_

025 - Ito Ichiteru - _Can put others into an unnatural sleep with music_

026 - Ito Taiki _- Son of Yoshi and Ichiteru_

027 - Endo Hayato -_ Sarcastic surgeon, would be holy man_

028 - Ishida Nagahide - _Merchant extraordinaire, father of Nao, Eri, Emiko, Aneko, Minako and Ichiteru_

029 - Ishida Atsuko - _Extremely traditional woman, mother of . . . well all those kids listed above_

**LIGHTNING - V04**

030 - Daimyo Taiko - _Scheming young man, had his father killed to gain power_

031 - Raikage - _Scheming old man . . . with style_

032 - Oedo Tomoko - _Konoha's mole, controls metal_

033 - Yurei Yuu - _One of the last of a phasing bloodline, often mistaken for a girl_

034 - Konjo Takumi - _Shinobi turned Samurai_

035 - Konjo Kaori - _Former Jounin, now retired mother expecting her third child_

036 - Hattori Tetsuo - _Head of Hattori clan_

037 - Chiwa - _Former ninja of Rain, suffers from memory gaps and is trusted by no one_

038 - Hattori Hiashi - _Tetsuo and Hanabi's son_

039 - Konjo Takashi - _Takumi and Kaori's son_

040 - Konjo Takako - _Kaori and Takumi's daughter_

041 - Ukita Minako - _Knows if you've been naughty or nice_

042 - Ukita Nobuko - _A well to do merchant_

**EARTH - V05**

043 - Tsuchikage - _A scarred Shinobi resurrected by Orochimaru_

044 - Gammo Katashi - _A self serving Jounin with betrayal in his heart_

045 - Juukei Iwao - _Head of Iwagakure's attack force_

046 - Mori Hidenobu - _A musician in service of the Daimyo_

047 - Mori Aneko - _Can endure some of the coldest temperatures_

048 - Mori Hidemaru - _Hidenobu and Aneko's son_

**DEPARTED - V06**

X01 - Hibiki Masaru - _Teammate of Yuu and Kasumi, killed by Akuma_

X02 - Miura Saizo - _Sasuke's student, a snake handler murdered by Akuma_

X03 - Team Chiwa - _Genin team from Rain, members Mayumi, Masunari, and Maeda killed by Akuma_

X04 - Team Yamanaka - _Ino's Genin team, members Akiko, Omi and Natsume killed by Juukei Keiji's squad_

X05 - Inuzuka Kyusaku - _Cousin of Kiba, Chouji's student, killed defending Tomoko as Konoha fell_

X06 - Taisho Miura - _Fire's last general, killed in action_

X07 - Hattori Hanzo - _Former head of the Hattori clan, killed by Naruto_

X08 - Sora - _Member of Tetsuo's Jounin team, killed in action against Iwagakure ninjas._

X09 - Oedo Tarou - _Father of Daisuke and Tomoko, killed as Konoha fell_

X10 - Ina Ami - _Puppet mistress, Hikaru's lover, killed by Kaori_

X11 - Nana Mizuki - _Loyal follower of Suigetsu killed in action against Cloud ninjas_

X12 - Akuma - _Vicious, dangerous, dead, killed by Naomasa_

X13 - Hijiri Jun - _Hitomi's mother killed by Satsujin_

X14 - Gammo Rikuto - _Bloodthirsty Jounin killed by the Tsuchikage_

X15 - Ashihara Keika - _Wandering naturalist killed by Sound soldiers_

X16 - Sasaki Kaoru - _Saeki's father, former Waterfall ninja, killed by Sound soldiers_

X17 - Yamamoto Miyuki - _Blunt medic, Naruto's student, missing in action_

X18 - Hara Masamune - _Ranged specialist, Naruto's student missing in action, believed dead_

X19 - Akane - _A schoolyard bully, killed by Hitomi_

X20 - Satsujin - _Young Jounin from Rain, killed by Hitomi_

X21 - Juukei Keiji - _Father of Iwao, brother of the Tsuchikage, killed by Nara Shikamaru_

**CLANS - V07**

C01 - Hattori - _Shadow Eye users, Hyuga rivals_

C02 - Ishida - _Wealthy merchant empire_

C03 - Oedo - _Blacksmiths who can control metal_

C03 - Yurei - _Phasing abilities and metal allergies_

C04 - Hibiki - _Armored nomads_

C05 - Ashihara - _A very mysterious clan from a dead country_


	34. The Clash

**Old Souls**

**Second Scroll: Invasion**

**Chapter Thirty Two**

There was a massive blast, Tomoko felt the heat on her face and the trees around them shook.

They Lightning army was traveling through a nice patch of road framed on only one side by forest, the other side was a beautiful clearing, they'd assumed they'd see any enemy force before it saw them but instead it seemed they and the Earth army had spotted one another at the same time.

Earth had sent some Samurai over, presumably to see what the parade was for and to the surprise of no one Lord Taiko, the Daimyo had ordered the men shot.

"We were going to do it anyway, start the charge!" Tomoko had been near enough to hear the Daimyo say, but once the two horsemen were dead a trio of boulders had sailed through the air towards the army.

One had been knocked out of the sky by some ninja's wind Jutsu and slammed harmlessly into the clearing. Yuu had leapt up and phased the second through into the ground just in time to keep their column from being flattened.

The third had slammed into a wagon not far in front of them which must have been carrying something combustible because as fore mentioned it went out with a bang.

"Well then, what's that saying about sticks and stones?" Tosa-senpai said dryly.

"Idiots." Chiwa scoffed, "Catapults are nothing but big targets for us ninja."

"Which of course they'll anticipate!" Tomoko scolded, "They're bound to have _their _ninja in position to intercept us."

"This is Earth we're talking about, Stone ninja, these boulders are probably ninja propelled, either a Jutsu or thrown by some summoned minion!" Kimiko shouted as she smashed a vial of her own blood and summoned a badger.

"Into the trees!" Someone roared, Tomoko glanced at Yuu who returned phasing out of the ground between her and Chiwa. Several ninja teams took to the trees intent on reaching the Earth catapults or whatever was throwing the rocks.

And they didn't travel far before the met the Stone ninja in the trees.

Tomoko lashed out ,wrapping her chains around one foe and constricting them like snakes for a moment before throwing the man as high into the air as she could.

Unless he had some way of flying or gliding he was in for a painful, hopefully lethal landing.

Tomoko used her chains to swing to another tree and thrusting one metal claw out and into the neck of an enemy Chuunin who was attempting to attack Chiwa, Tomoko landed roughly on the man's dying body, he landing probably breaking several of his ribs and speeding him to death.

Then an enemy Jounin kicked her roughly into Chiwa, the battle was joined and the young woman laughed bitterly.

These were the allies of the bastards who'd killed her father and her friends, who'd destroyed her home.

Damn but she'd missed fighting _real _battles. She pulled herself off of Chiwa and turned to face her opponent who was already fending off a badger summoned by Kimiko, Tomoko meant to kill him but Chiwa leapt over her head and brought a kunai down into the man's eye socket.

"Hey, he was mine!" Tomoko protested.

"Like the one who cushioned your landing should have been mine," Chiwa scoffed.

"Fair enough." Tomoko admitted and with a grin she turned to her next target.

The battle was most definitely joined, soldiers and Samurai charged each other but the ninja were already locked in mortal combat, the catapults or ninja or whatever hurtled their deadly boulders at the Lightning army

* * *

The Sound Commodore scowled at the ships on the horizon, "Is that the west fleet? What are they doing?" He demanded.

"Sir, our lookout reports that that is the Water navy, they're flying banners. _Their _banners and only their banners."

The Samurai raised an eyebrow. There was nothing wrong with Water having a navy or flying their banners _provided _those banners flew _beneath _the banner of the empire.

This was an open act of defiance, perhaps someone had informed them that the imperial navy was being dispatched to their waters to hunt for the exiled island again, this time without first seeking their consent.

The Commodore was surprised that such an act would have resulted in open rebellion, he turned to the Serpent Priest aboard the ship who, because he spoke for the gods, was technically higher rank than him, "Should we try to communicate with them, lord?"

The man laughed and removed his hood, exposing a headband with a metal plate adorned with a musical note, something ninja used to wear. "Why bother? The lambs have come willingly to the slaughter. Our mission was always to find exiled ninja and then strike out at Kirigakure."

"Sir, are you certain?" The commodore asked, raising an eyebrow, "We don't have the power to defeat them, we have only this heavy destroyer, five light destroyers and two frigates, I see at least two super destroyers out there."

"But we have the gods, what greater power can you ask for short of the Emperor himself? Order the assault, I will inform my brethren. You may call the East and West task forces if you feel the need for more ships" The priest said and simply walked away.

The Samurai officer drew his sword and turned to his men, his orders accepted and his will steeled, "You heard him, contact the fleet and order the assault! Send these rebels to their watery graves or die trying!"

* * *

"Did they anticipate us?" Sakura asked in surprise as she and the rest of the command staff stood at the front of the ship watching the now easily visible enemy.

"No," Shikamaru grumbled, "I'm not Emiko but my guess is this is an accident."

"That's not the full fleet either, this is a task force." Neji said, "The war ships docked in the Land of Waves were twice this number."

"Well that's one hell of a task force." Konohamaru grunted.

"No, we're just one joke of a navy." Sakura said dryly. She glanced at Shikamaru, "Better?" She asked, referring to his stomach. She wasn't sure what exactly was wrong with him, it might be psychosomatic, pains brought on by stress, but physically if anything had been wrong her medical prowess should have fixed it.

"Oh I was fine until the alarms went off." Shikamaru laughed softly, "Now I feel like throwing myself overboard."

Shikamaru took a deep breath and said "All right, pick your targets and get to your teams, Sakura, I'd like you and Neji to work with Hijiri's platoons to take the flagship, it'll be a good opportunity to get used to fighting side by side."

Sakura nodded and without any further words the members of the Twelve present disappeared in puffs of smoke. She reappeared next to Hijiri who was already assembling her teams.

The younger woman spun around and regarded Sakura, "You're here to assume command?"

"We'll work together, the chief strategist wants us to take the enemy flag ship." Sakura said.

Hijiri nodded, "Then that's exactly what we'll do."

They were near the ship's starboard side, Sakura saw as the _Amagiri's _ballistae began firing, their massive bolts sailing through the sky and splashing into the water near an enemy ship.

"I can't believe they missed." One of Hijiri's ninja grumbled.

"They didn't," Neji said, appearing with the squads Shikamaru had assigned him and Sakura, "That shot was meant to figure out how much they need to adjust their aim. It would have been impressive if had hit anything."

The rest of the fleet fired, the _Kagemusha _opened up as well, firing its own ballistae.

The Sound navy returned fire, and as the ships grew closer Sakura saw many men and women leaping from the Mist ships.

"That's our cue," Sakura said, "Let's stick together. Their flagship must be that big destroyer in the middle of the formation, that's our target."

"Let's go." Neji said simply, leaping over the edge of the ship.

The other ninja leapt as well, and Sakura followed. The ninja who came from the Land of Water swam through the ocean, but ninja from Konoha ran over the surface of the water.

Arrows and bolts came for them but it was simple work deflecting them.

It might have been safer, perhaps less energy consuming to wait until the ships were closer but that would have put the allied fleet in greater peril.

And since it was a safe bet that there would be other Sound ships in the area--this wasn't their entire fleet after all--no time could be wasted.

Sakura didn't allow herself to think of how much more dangerous battles at sea were. In a land setting a wounded man might be left to be found by medics or taken prisoner and treated.

At sea any ninja who slipped up and got hit by an arrow or bolt would probably drown, any crew whose ship was lost would drown unless they could be taken aboard another ship and for the enemies of the alliance at least there wouldn't really be much chance of survival unless they turned around and ran.

The allied fleet wouldn't have the time to fish for surviving prisoners, they would note the positions of their own downed ships and aid them then move on without a single thought for the enemy.

All that Sakura ignored as she reached her target and leapt from the surface of the water to the hull of the ship, clinging to it with chakra and running up the side.

She drew a pair of shuriken and took out two bowmen as she reached the end of her vertical path.

She only cut their bowstrings, she didn't aim to kill. Shuriken were excellent ninja tools but sometimes they failed to kill a target right away, it was better to cut their bowstrings and disable their ability to fight for all the length of time that it took them to draw close quarters weapons.

A length of time that turned out to be much shorter than the time it took Sakura to leap onto the deck between them, land on her hands and kick out with her legs, knocking both men overboard to the fate she'd tried not to think on earlier.

One of her team was with her, as was Neji and Hijiri, more ninja leapt onto the deck as well, the crew on deck must have been over a hundred strong just in bowmen with perhaps a hundred more manning the turrets.

There could have been still more below decks, by comparison five ninja squads probably seemed underwhelming.

Sakura rolled to her feet and leapt into the air, higher than an average man or woman would have been able to jump and came down in the middle of a group of soldiers.

She drop kicked the deck and let her enhanced strength help tare a hole through it that sent some men falling to the lower deck and the rest of them at least stumbling as she rolled past her own crater and landed in the thick of the enemy ranks.

A few hat the presence of mind to try to attack her but they were down too quickly, kunai and shuriken rippling through their ranks as her comrades fired into the swarm of soldiers.

Sakura grasped one man by the ankle and tore him off of his feet--that is she pulled him off balance, his feet were still connected to his body, she wasn't a maniac--and tossed him down the hole she'd created to the lower deck--well he _might _survive that--and took his spear as he went.

She swept the legs out from another foe with the spear and thrust out, piercing one man's abdomen.

She tore the weapon free, losing its head in the impaled man, and thrust back viciously, the butt of the spear-turned-staff slamming into the face of a Samurai and damaging his battle mask.

In mere moments what should have been a quiet day at sea, a day for the Genin to recuperate from their exams and a day for the ninja to further prepare themselves mentally for the challenge ahead had become pandemonium.

Battle . . . she really hadn't missed it.

* * *

Yukio raised an eyebrow as Kotaro stood up and drew his sword.

"All right, let's get to it." The First said calmly.

"Get to what?" Kasumi asked.

The doors to the chamber the five of them were sharing opened up and a pair of Sound ninja entered.

"Rebel fleet on the horizon, the command ship is already under attack."

"And our vessel?" Yukio asked.

"Unnoticed thus far." The first ninja said.

"Then we continue to our target, the master ordered us to burn Kirigakure, not play with Samurai on the water." Kurai said calmly.

"Kurai-kun are you insane?" Shiroi laughed, "This is open rebellion, the sort of thing we're supposed to be stomping out."

"Sirs, madams," the second ninja piped up, "the enemy onslaught contains several ninja, the command ship alone is under attack by some eight squads and it's nearly lost. Our sensors are saying that some truly powerful chakra levels are coming off of some of these Shinobi, would it not be more prudent to deal with this? If we let the enemy pass us here they will almost certainly carry on to the Land of Waves and perhaps to the capital."

"The army from Wind is already moving to support Waves, the Shogun anticipated this." Kurai said.

"But the Emperor told us," Kasumi piped up, "that there was ninja resistance in Wind, if the army is intercepted they'd be stalled and even if they're not our fleet here would need to stall the enemy for the entire day if we wanted the Wind army to get to Waves in time . . ."

Kotaro said calmly, "I've already made up my mind, Kurai, I thought the drawn sword would be obvious. Am I, or am I not still the First among us? Something of this scale is exactly what the Emperor anticipated and if I were Uchiha Sasuke I would be part of it just as he must be part of it. We go, Kurai."

"Uchiha was always the important part of the mission, not the burning of Kiriagakure. Anyway without an army the village ceases to be a threat, there will be no defense." Yukio pointed out, eager to join with his comrades. This would be the first time that all five of them were unleashed in a battle, four years of hellish training and torturous augmentations and now he would see the result of it.

"Very well then," Kurai said, "We will engage as you say, Kotaro . . . what is your plan of attack?"

"Surface the ship," Kurai commanded, "Let me see the fleet."

"Sir shouldn't we just go to the command vessel?" The first ninja asked.

"How many ninja were aboard?"

"Two squads, sir." The second reported.

"Jounin?"

"Mixed. I believe standard two to two composition of Jounin to Chuunin for each squad."

"Then they're lost, the command ship will be scuttled and those eight teams will move on to other ships. We need to assess the fleet and see which ship Uchiha Sasuke is more likely to attack. We will each pick a target and converge, if none of us finds him then we move on to another ship."

Yukio grinned and followed Kurai as he let the two ninja lead him to the bridge. The submersible ship, shaped something like backwards stingray, was designed to ram into enemy hulls from beneath the surface of the water, sinking large vessels and putting its crew at a reduced risk.

It had been the perfect ship to commandeer for their trip to Water and Yukio felt certain the Emperor had made sure it would be there for them to find, something of a surprise.

The ship surfaced and one of the ninja opened the hatch. The Five climbed aboard and surveyed the scene.

"There!" Yukio said, "See that monster on the horizon? That must be the Water navy's command ship."

"Yes, but it's not important to us." Shiroi said, "Uchiha wouldn't still be there, if there were a battle being fought he'd be in it, he's almost certainly one of the men attacking our own command ship."

"Sir, I've received word that this task force we're following is one of three, the others are moving to intercept this fleet."

"How soon?" Kurai demanded.

"The West fleet is twenty minutes out of sight at their best speed, the East fleet is one hour."

"This will be over in less than an hour, all the East will do is pick up survivors." Shiroi commented.

"Send them to Waves." Kotaro snapped.

"What?" Kasumi blinked.

"Let East reinforce Waves, let West apply pressure here." Kotaro said, "Like Shiroi said this battle will be over before the East can arrive, if the enemy wins the East Fleet would have to pursue them and there's no point when we know where they're going. Head them off and meet them there, and if the enemy loses our ships will be sufficient to retrieve _our _survivors."

"Prisoners?" Kasumi asked.

"We'd only need a couple dozen for public executions." Shiroi commented.

"Agreed." Kotaro said, "There'll be room enough for that. Now . . . Shiroi, take that frigate there, Kurai, the light destroyer alongside it, support each other if necessary. Yukio, take that troop transport, Kasumi that other light destroyer. I will be aboard that frigate there, the one moving to assist the command ship, if your ship is cleared of enemy ninja or if you find Sasuke report it over your radio."

"Won't there be a lot of radio traffic?" Kasumi asked, "They may intrude on our signals."

"Our line is always clean," Yukio said, "Okatsu-sensei told me so. After all, you don't hear anything now do you?"

"I guess not, I just thought we might not be in range." Kasumi shrugged.

"This touching moment of friendship and banter is over," Kotaro said dryly, "Move out."

And with those words The Five, the fingers of the Emperor's fist, the serpent gods joined the fray.

Yukio ran over the water's surface to his assigned ship, it was the nearest.

He leapt onto the deck, there were already ninja aboard, he called upon his control of the sand and formed a pair of sand katanas from sand he carried in two large pouches at his hips. He lunged into the fray, cutting down one ninja who failed to see him through the soldier whom he--tragically--also had to cut down.

After all, what was a soldier or two if the result was a ninja? Sound had grunts to spare, but the rebels . . . well ninja were much harder to come by.

Yukio laughed maniacally as blood drenched his sand blades, he shouted with joy and cried out to the soldiers, "Fight on, your gods are with you!"

And the men responded with zeal, though many had just seen one of their gods hack down one of their own comrades. That didn't matter, what mattered was that one of the Serpent Gods was with them on their ship fighting off the ten remaining ninja demons.

Yukio loved every minute of their worship and he loved the renewed vigor with which they fought.

Slowly pushing back the rebel ninja who seemed terribly surprised, one man stood forth, a Kiri ninja with a sword and teeth filed to sharp points.

_Of course, I forgot they do that silly thing. It's to resemble a shark or something . . . must hurt. _Yukio thought to himself.

The man hefted his large sword which frankly looked rather ridiculous both due to its massive size and the decorative blade which looked like it might split into two separate yet still fairly massive swords. Yukio made note of that, just in case his opponent tried to get the drop on him by pulling the sword apart.

The man noted Yukio and attempted to make an introduction, "I am one of the Seven Swordsmen, My name is--"

"Don't care, you're facing a _god_, mortal!" Yukio shouted, rushing on, slamming one sword into the man's massive blade and sending the other to strike at his chest, "Your name is as unimportant as your life!"

The blade pierced the man's chest and both he and the sword disappeared in a cloud of smoke that only revealed a Sound soldier.

A rather cruel substitution, but Yukio applauded the tactic. It was what he would have done, to a ninja with so many enemy soldiers around why bother substituting with anything else if you had the chance to use a hostile?

He spun around in time to see his opponent behind him raise the sword above his head, a pair of circular holes near the tip which Yukio had mistaken for ornamental eyes began to glow and crackle with chakra, the swordsman descended on him, the chakra in the blade building up to quite obviously lethal proportions.

Yukio leapt back, remembering Temari-sensei's training--block only the attacks you can't dodge, you never know how much strength your enemy has behind his swing--Yukio ducked low to dodge the blade but the chakra exploded, throwing him backwards.

His body was slightly damaged but he drew on more of its chakra--he could work it to death if need be--and felt confident that the damage wasn't lethal.

He laughed, "Well well, this will be fun!" He couldn't let the men think their god was down and out so he quickly used every bit of sand he had and formed a massive spear above his head and hurtled it at his enemy, "My turn, shark-boy!"

The spear narrowly missed the enemy ninja who seemed to be recovering from the blow he'd delivered, it hit the deck and exploded into a good hundred or so sand shuriken which came hurtling towards the man's unprotected back.

"Choujuurou-sama!" One enemy ninja shouted and about thirty of the shuriken suddenly diverted and slammed into her, one, Yukio noticed, slammed into her throat while many others struck her in the chest and one even hit her in the eye, their combined force knocked her off of the ship with a gurgling scream.

But Choujuurou--Yukio assumed that was his name--had heard her and turned to see the flurry of shuriken still coming for him, he leapt backwards into the crowd of soldiers and Yukio called the sand back to himself, unwilling to kill quite so many of his own men in a no-guarantee effort to slay this clearly skilled opponent, choosing instead to form his sand into a shield.

Which came in handy when his opponent's blade slammed down on that shield and with an earsplitting blast actually knocked a hole through the shield that might have struck Yukio if he'd been stupid to stand right behind it and hadn't instead leapt backwards.

The young man called his sand together on his opponent's blade even as the man was checking to see if he'd succeeded in his attack. All he needed was a firm grasp on the sword, and he got it, the remainder of his sand shield--rather that which hadn't been blasted away by the sword's chakra blast--enclosed on the blade and Yukio let it creep up to the man's hands and hold him firmly before he could escape.

He wished he had the sand necessary to capture his entire foe. He didn't have enough sand on his person to perform the Sand Coffin like Gaara, but he could use his sand to destroy the man's hands, that would make him useless as a Shinobi.

He felt as much as saw he had his opponent firmly in his grasp, held in the air by the sand that Yukio had such total and complete control over. The younger man laughed and said "For one of those Seven Swordsmen you really don't put up much of a fight. Those were some fancy blasts and all but really you aren't worth much."

Around the two of them battle raged, their eyes locked and Yukio was in his own murderous world. Soldiers were overrunning the remaining Shinobi of Choujuurou's team, enemy forces _might _arrive in time to rescue those men and women they might even save Choujuurou's life but his _hands_?

Yukio raised _his_ hand in that iconic--at least in his homeland--gesture, focused on the man's hands totally engulfed in his sand up to the elbows, ignoring the sword which there was no reason to try to crush and said "Sand Coffin!"

**To Be Continued . . .**


	35. Splitting Up

**Old Souls**

**Chapter Thirty Three**

Shikamaru surveyed the scene as the two fleets converged. They were in much closer range now and so far the fighting favored the allied fleet.

"This is going fairly well." Shiho commented, relief in her voice, "I think we'll win this, Shikamaru-sama."

"Even if we do it's a setback, if this costs us a single day that might be all the time it takes for Wind's army to reinforce Waves. Whether they know it or not these men are winning just by keeping us here, even if they all die they might win this battle."

"That's crazy talk!" Shiho said enthusiastically, "Lose the battle and win the war this early on? Surely you had a plan for this."

"Surprisingly: no." Shikamaru said dryly, "I never planned to meet the enemy's fleet in the middle of the sea, the entire invasion revolved around us landing within a certain amount of time."

Shiho looked shaken, "Really?" She whispered.

"No." Shikamaru scoffed, "Of course I anticipated setbacks, that's why Hinata and her clan are in position to meet Naruto if we don't make it there in time. But our road gets harder if Wind's army gets to the Land of Waves, either we'll have to find a secure landing further along the coast, or we'll have to attack Waves. Nevertheless this accidental attack is going to cost us manpower, time, and it costs Orochimaru nothing; he doesn't care about his soldiers' lives."

Shiho shook her head and sighed in relief, "You really had me scared. But hey, don't worry; this will whet everyone's appetite for battle, right?"

"I don't know. Is it having that effect on you?" Shikamaru asked.

The wily-haired woman hesitated, "Uh, actually . . . well I'm not exactly a brute, heh . . . but it's not like we have to go get bloodied out there today."

"What gave you that idea?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"They'll never reach this ship." Shiho shrugged, "It'd be foolish to risk the tactical staff fighting on another ship."

"Never assume you won't be fighting," Shikamaru cautioned, "it's true that we're the last line but that doesn't mean we won't be engaging in the fight. Heck, if the enemy gets reinforcements we may need to deal with those ourselves, everyone else is busy."

"There's no chance of that though, right?" Shiho shrugged.

"That depends on how fast we get through this fleet. I'm certain the enemy will have reinforcements on their way by now."

"But this battle's a big accident . . ." Shiho frowned.

"Finding us was an accident, but this fleet had a purpose. We have to be ready for anything."

There was a blast from the enemy command ship; its bridge had just exploded. Shikamaru shook his head, "I hope nobody was in there."

"I don't think our people would blow it up if they were in there." Shiho said.

"Of course not, but the enemy would." Shikamaru said softly, "We have some of our top people on that ship. If I were the enemy I'd do whatever it took to make sure they didn't get off alive, even if it meant sacrificing the ship."

"I'm sure they're fine." Shiho said.

"Enemy ships sighted!" One soldier shouted to the two ninja.

Shikamaru smiled grimly, "And that's our cue."

* * *

The others closed their eyes while the cloud from the destroyed bridge swept over them, Hitomi only held her breath, her eyes were protected.

She kept her eyes peeled for any aggressors as the ninja on deck used the cover to quickly finish off the soldiers. Hitomi watched for enemy ninja but none emerged, instead the Mizukage and Sasuke-sama came from the wreck along with that woman whose name Hitomi didn't remember and an _extremely _tall man.

As the dust settled Hitomi noted the way Sasuke-sama refused to look at Haruno-senpai, instead shouting to Neji, "Karin's gotten some powerful chakra, we should--"

"It's splitting up, looks like a group after all." Karin reported, and pointed to a vessel in the distance, "First one's gone there, second's gone there," She added, pointing to another vessel.

"Two more are on the water heading . . . there, and there, the last one's moving to fast to be--"

Hitomi looked in the direction Karin had reported and so did Neji.

"I see one," Neji grunted, "I'll handle her."

"It's one of the Five!" Hitomi snapped, sure she wasn't seeing the one Neji did because the one she saw was a man.

Aburame Kurai.

"Who is it?" Sasuke asked.

"It is Hattori Kasumi," Neji said, "as a Hyuga I am the best suited to defeating her."

"Agreed," Sasuke said, "Karin if we assume these are all members of the Five do you have any idea of who went where or why?"

"No." Karin answered simply.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Sasuke demanded, "You can detect an individual's chakra can't you?"

"But remember the Five aren't here as themselves, their own chakra is masked by the chakra of their host bodies, if I were close enough I'd know but at this distance I can't tell." The redhead said nonchalantly.

"I see Aburame, if that's helpful." Hitomi commented, knowing that Sasuke-sama would want to know that.

The Mizukage clapped his hands together, "What say we split up? There are seven operative teams here, we'll go after that member of the five," The Mizukage pointed to a nearby frigate, "Hyuga-san is going after Kasumi, Haruno you can take Hijiri here after the one she's spotted, your other two teams can go after one of the other Five, our spare team will go after the fifth, maybe we'll luck out and it won't even be the Five."

"Agreed but I don't see any need for Hijiri and myself to go the same way, Hijiri you follow Aburame and I'll go to that destroyer there."

She'd be going to the target nearest to Sasuke's, Hitomi noted. Not that it mattered; she prepared herself for the thought of fighting an Aburame.

But then Sasuke surprised her, "I'll take Aburame, I may be able to reason with him."

"Then let's do this," The Mizukage laughed wickedly.

Sakura folded her arms and glanced at Hitomi, "You understand I feel we should attack separate targets because of our skill levels, not because I don't want to work with you."

"I'm surprised at you, Haruno-senpai," Hitomi scolded, "I should think a legend like yourself would know better than to care whether or not I was offended."

Sakura smiled slightly, "Watch yourself and good luck!"

Hitomi smiled grimly and led her squad, "Come on, let's slay a false god."

* * *

Sakura landed on the deck of the ship and it took her no time at all to spot her target.

She scoffed, Temari's student had certainly grown powerful; he held a Jounin of Kirigakure in his grasp--or at least the grasp of his sand--and it was no ordinary Jounin, it was Choujuurou, of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen.

Sakura didn't hesitate, she rushed in at Yukio who spun around in time to see her and raise a sand barrier.

With a punch that would have sent an unprotected man into the nearest wall with all the force of a ten story fall Sakura lashed out at the Sound shinobi, whose sand saved his life.

Or at least the life of his host body.

Yukio's released Choujuurou who fell to the deck but landed on his feet and sprang for the younger man leaving his sword behind.

Sakura realized why very quickly, Choujuurou's hands were completely mangled, they looked useless.

Yukio's sand swept around Sakura but the legendary heroin knew better than to give the false idol time to completely surround her, instead she lashed out, punching through the sand and striking Yukio in the chest.

She felt her hand blown away and cut, he was using his wind barrier, expelling wind chakra from his chakra points to repel and cut his foes. It was a trick Temari had dug up from old scrolls and taught the boy to help him combat Hyuga Shiroi and it seemed he'd added to it, making the wind chakra cut Sakura but not cut his own clothes.

Sakura was impressed but not enough that she would let Yukio live.

She drew her fist back, Choujuurou sprang out, wrapping his arms around Yukio who began to repel him but the boy had made a mistake.

The pain Choujuurou must have felt in his hands no doubt dulled the pain of Yukio's chakra cutting into him as he held the boy in place, so though Yukio's chakra points were cutting into Choujuurou like a hundred little razors ripping the flesh of his arms and chest to a bloody mess it wasn't enough to stop the battle hardened Jounin in time.

Sakura also observed that it wasn't a continuous blast; Yukio was expending chakra in waves, if she struck him at just the right moment . . .

Sakura struck out with all her might, meaning to take the boy's head off his shoulders but suddenly Yukio threw both her and Choujuurou back, his shirt ripped to shreds and his forehead protector flew away and clattered to the deck.

He stood composed though Sakura could tell he'd expended a lot of chakra getting free of Choujuurou, "Sorry, other matters."

He disappeared; Sakura had no idea where he went.

But she knew that Choujuurou needed help badly.

"Clear the deck; capture the ship don't sink it!" Sakura shouted to her team and to Choujuurou's, "Keep them off us while I tend to his wounds."

"N-never mind m-m-me!" Choujuurou grunted, "F-f-finish this!"

"Oh shut up!" Sakura scoffed, grabbing one of his arms, "you're lucky I'm here you'll be going into shock soon."

The Jounin didn't say anything more; Sakura began doing her best to tend to his wounds.

But his hands . . .

She wasn't sure how much good she could do for them but she had to try. She didn't know where Yukio had gone but she had to do everything she could for Choujuurou before he came back.

If he came back . . . where would he have gone?

* * *

Shiroi spun around just in time to avoid Neji's first strike, and then she was able to deflect the rest of his sixty-four palm strike.

He had lied . . . but if they knew he'd seen Shiroi they'd never have let him come and face her. they would think that he wouldn't have the nerve to do what needed to be done. He'd had to lie and tell them he saw Hattori Kasumi instead, knowing that if he'd mentioned Shiroi then Sasuke would have come himself, as he'd done at Hijiri's mention of Kurai

But Neji knew that Shiroi was a Hyuga matter best dealt with by a Hyuga.

The two of them squared off, Shiroi had done a number on the deck, three Mist teams were down and at least five of the bodies had been killed with the sealed point chakra bomb, a technique that forced an opponent's chakra out of their body through their chakra points.

If those points were sealed, as a Hyuga would have no trouble doing, the chakra would blast the person's body apart trying to get out; it was draining move for the person using it but a lethal one to the person suffering it.

And Shiroi had used it at least five times; she must not have much chakra left . . .

_No, fool! _Neji thought, _She can use her host's chakra until it runs dry and even open every gate if she knows how to, the host's survival means nothing so it doesn't matter how much damage she does to it, she can do things that would burn normal people alive from the inside out . . ._

"You've become quite the shinobi, Shiroi." Neji said calmly, and he noted that her bare forehead bore no seal, "and I see you've freed yourself of our clan's seal."

"You already knew that, cousin." Shiroi said calmly.

"I had to see it, I suppose." Neji said. "There's a difference between Hinata failing to activate it, and actually seeing it gone. I don't think I got a very good look at you that night . . ." Neji shook his head, "I wonder . . ."

"What?" Shiroi asked.

"If you looked like this then . . . your eyes are so empty." Neji said simply.

Shiroi laughed, "I'm a Hyuga!"

"No . . . there's no light there . . . even a Hyuga's eyes have a glimmer, a shine to them . . . yours are flat and dead. Soulless . . ."

Shiroi shrugged, "Waxing poetic, cousin? Well whatever . . . I made my choices; I've lived with them and let me tell you my life is pretty damn good. Yours . . . heh. What've you done, hid under a rock for the past four years? I've been frontline and center changing the world, you've been doing nothing . . . maybe I've lost that thing you consider a soul, maybe my eyes don't have any light to them but by the powers cousin they've seen things you've never imagined."

Around the two of them the battled raged anew, Neji's ninja and a couple of remaining Mist ninja were wiping the floors with the remaining soldiers, Shiroi didn't seem to care and the others knew to stay out of her and Neji's way.

"The last time we met I nearly killed you." Shiroi reflected, "I've grown stronger since then, have you?"

Neji smiled slightly, "I'm still the most powerful Hyuga."

"I'll allow you that since I'm no longer a Hyuga, I'm known by a new name now; Akuma. We're not even family anymore."

"That'll never be true, Shiroi." Neji said, "Stand down now . . . we can make things right."

"Take off your forehead protector." Shiroi said calmly.

Neji's eyes narrowed and his hand made no move to comply with her request.

She smiled, "I thought not. No cousin, things can never be put right, not while your head has that seal burned into it. But don't worry . . . I'll give you a quick death just like all the branch members I've run into over the years. It's more than I've done for the main family members I've stumbled upon, it's more than I'll give Hinata and Hanabi, it's . . ." Shiroi hesitated and her eyes narrowed.

Without another word she rushed at Neji, striking so quickly that he almost didn't have time to defend himself.

But once he regained his footing he seized the offensive; Shiroi was good but he _had _to be better. He certainly hadn't spent the last four years under a rock, he'd spent them preparing for this, preparing to kill members of the Five, to fight the war.

Shiroi suddenly spun away, ignoring Neji and rapidly sealing the chakra points of one of his shinobi who'd got too close, or rather hadn't moved away fast enough when the two powerful ninja's battle brought them close to him.

Neji was stunned not only at how quickly Shiroi struck an opponent who was on their guard, but also by how quickly she gathered and thrust forth the chakra for the lethal move that murdered Neji's compatriot in a literal flash.

Neji could see through it of course, it didn't blind him, though it blinded most everyone else.

The Jutsu was designed not to impair a Hyuga, but if it had an adverse effect on any allies the opponent might have then so much the better.

Neji saw Shiroi prepare to retreat, he thrust forward and managed to strike her shoulder twice, sealing chakra points but unfortunately he failed to stop her from disappearing in a puff of smoke.

He scanned the waters, guessing she must have gone to another ship.

This wasn't over. He left his squad behind with a bark of "Burn this ship, but don't leave the bodies of our comrades behind!" before he leapt over the side and ran for the location where he knew Shiroi had gone.

Their fight wasn't over.

Neji understood how Naruto must have felt all those years ago, hunting for Sasuke. To hold someone dear and see them fall so far, to see evil almost radiate from them . . .

But where Naruto had had some idea or fantasy of goodness left in Sasuke Neji knew that Shiroi was wholly and truly gone.

Where Naruto had eventually brought Sasuke back to Konoha Neji knew he would have to stop his cousin and pupil once and for all; he had to kill Shiroi.

* * *

Kurai leapt into the air to avoid the snake that tried to ensnare and constrict him.

He thrust his hands out and a swarm of insects poured from his host body--turned into a human hive host to a branch of Kurai's insect swarm--and consumed the thing, poisoning it and eating its flesh so quickly that in the blink of an eye it looked like a half chewed length of noodle.

Kurai gazed levelly at the serpent's summoner.

"Kurai!" Sasuke shouted, "Listen to me; this doesn't have to be the way you think it does! If you're willing we can talk, if you refuse I will destroy your body so quickly you'll feel it all the way back wherever they're storing you . . . now listen to me!"

Kurai eyed his sensei and said "Once upon a time I bet a lot of people asked you to do the same thing. What did you tell them Sensei?"

Sasuke's eyes grew hard, "Is that your way of saying you won't cooperate?"

Kurai let his insects speak for him; they swarmed for Sasuke-sensei who blew a ball of flame to protect himself.

But they also swarmed for the three other powerful ninja that had come with Sasuke-sensei and Kurai held his hand to his ear, "This is Akuma Kurai . . . I have Uchiha Sasuke, all to my position."

And one by one, before Sasuke's fire had finished burning the portion of the swarm attacking him the Five dropped whatever they were doing wherever they were doing it and encircled their target; the man that meant more to Kabuto-sama than the war itself.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-sama," Kurai said calmly, "but all things considered I don't see any point in changing sides this late in the game. Now, if you really want to talk we can do so . . . start by admitting your defeat and offering your unconditional surrender."

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Sorry there wasn't a chapter last week, or rather I'm sorry this chapter was late and I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope to have the next chapter posted by the end of the (this) weekend.


	36. The First Battles

**Chapter Thirty Four**

Temari swept her fan out as an enemy vessel tried to broadside her own ship.

Its ballistae fired and were thrown far to the side, the ship itself rocked and Temari felt pretty proud.

It wasn't exactly easy capsizing a ship and it hadn't been her intention anyway. That she had rocked it at all--and rather fiercely she thought--without rocking her own vessel was a testament to her ability.

Moment of personal celebration aside Gaara lashed out, his sand puncturing a giant hole in the side of the ship. It was above the water level--Gaara didn't want to lose any of his sand, it was all he had until they reached the shore--but when Temari swept the ship with her wind again it rocked again and this time the hole went below the waves and rapidly filled with water.

The ship capsized, it was just one of four nearby vessels that were already sinking.

The enemy's reinforcement fleet had come in perhaps hoping to catch the allies without their ninja, in truth all they'd caught was the full force of the fleet's ballistae and catapults.

And of course those ninja still on the ships.

The battle was going to be over quickly, before noon the fleet would be underway again.

And the first battle would have been won by the alliance.

* * *

Iwao growled viciously as he shoved a slain Kumogakure ninja away from him.

"They're pushing us back!" The youth shouted, "Where is captain Gammo?"

"I have no idea sir, he and much of our ninja force seems to have disappeared!" The Jounin nearest Iwao reported.

Iwao shook with fury, Katashi had better be in the thick of the fight _somewhere_ because if he and his men weren't fighting with all their might, if they were lost, or running or something like that Iwao would kill them all and sacrifice their families to the serpent shrines.

"Commander we need to fall back," The Jounin with him reported, "They're pushing too hard!"

"That's not possible, they're rebels! We are the servants of the Emperor, death in his service is an honor, _they _have _no _honor! They cannot defeat us!"

"Sir, the soldiers are already starting to flee, if we don't--"

Iwao knew if he didn't give the order for the ninja to fall back or at least cover the soldiers' retreat the defeat would be crippling.

But how could they be defeated?

"Fall back captain, take the men. I'll assume a rear guard with two squads, that should buy you time. Reassemble the legions and come around through the trees, hit them at their side and we'll crush their vanguard between us, if you find Katashi's men so much the better!"

It was a long shot of a plan, but if it worked it would force the Lightning army to back off for the day as well and both sides would quit the field with heavy losses.

As it stood now Earth would suffer the worst of it, justhow _many _squads were with Katashi? The Cloud Ninja were definitely overpowering them; add to the fact that many of the Cloud ninja used the Lightning Element which cut through virtually every Earth barrier and every defense that his ninja could use.

Iwao threw his hands together in a few gestures and summoned as many stone familiars as he could, a small army of stone soldiers.

They leveled their spears and charged the line of Lightning soldiers, several of them were destroyed by Cloud Ninja with Lightning Jutsus, but those that weren't slammed into the Lightning soldiers, ripping through their lines and cutting through the vanguard like a hot knife through butter.

It was very impressive but not the sort of thing Iwao could sustain for very long. The two squads he'd asked for supported him, doing their best to stop the ninja as the soldiers fled.

They were holding their ground, the army just needed to regroup and come to their aid.

* * *

The Earth country general was staggering when he ran into a ninja who looked surprisingly healthy. "What are you doing? We have to rally and--"

"Fall back. I've assumed command of the ninja force; I'm assuming command of the army. This enemy force is too strong and we've just received word that uprisings are springing up in our homeland, we must go now, fall back to the Lands of Earth, I'll go try to rescue our rear guard."

The Taisho shuddered; the mere thought that uprising would spring up in the homeland while they were away. They lived in turbulent times indeed.

He swore and raised his sword to his men, "Sound retreat, if our homes aren't safe then victory here won't mean anything!"

The Jounin smiled and slapped the samurai on the shoulder, "Good man, you've chosen wisely."

"Just you save those ninja who guarded our backsides; they're waiting for a rescue." The Taisho said, "Every one of my men left owes them their lives."

"Oh count on it," the Iwagakure captain nodded, "Gammo Katashi never lets a debt go unpaid."

The Taisho nodded and led his men along with some remaining ninja in their retreat, Katashi and his ninja went towards the battle, hopefully they'd save those ninja left behind and buy the retreating army still more time.

The Taisho reflected on the shame of it, four years ago their army had laid waste to Konoha and been ravaged, now here again against the rebels in Lightning they were shamed.

Did this army have no honor left? Did they have no skill or strength?

The men's morale would be crushed, perhaps it was fortunate that rebellion had risen up in the homeland, it would give his men an easy victory.

As for the capital, well the general was certain that the Emperor would just wipe away the enemy with his divine powers if need be.

* * *

The trees were a killing field, Tomoko was panting as she leaned against a branch.

She'd killed six enemies, she'd seen four Cloud ninja go down, so by her estimation they were ahead by a bit.

She didn't know where Yuu or Tosa-senpai were, but she had Chiwa with her.

"The enemy must have retreated," The older woman said, "I mean unless they need a breather too."

Tomoko shook her head and got to her feet, "Let's move, solitary targets get killed faster."

"Yeah, yeah . . ." Chiwa followed her as they leapt through the trees.

Tomoko had no idea just how close they were to the enemy though, in no time a tall enemy Jounin lashed out, hitting Chiwa in the neck and knocking her down from the trees. Tomoko raised her defense in time to deflect the attack from the Jounin but another man leapt onto her, knocking her down as well.

She struggled but her opponent wrapped his hand around her neck and squeezed hard as he drew a kunai from his hip and thrust for her stomach.

He'd have gutted her but her chains slithered out and deflected the blade, he prepared to try again but Tomoko's chains wrapped around him like a pair of constrictors.

They crushed him for a bit then Tomoko let the lethal claws at the end of her chains burry themselves in the man's flesh, "Stand down or your comrade gets peeled like a banana!" She shouted to another enemy ninja who was holding a blade to Chiwa's neck.

"You stand down or I kill--"

Tomoko didn't wait, she saw Yuu emerge from the ground and grab Chiwa before the blade could damage her.

So Tomoko spread her arms and called her chains back, the man entangled in them spun violently as he was rapidly uncoiled, he flew into the air and came down on the ground hard.

With a splat.

Conceivably he might still be alive, but that didn't seem very important.

Yuu did something to the other Jounin's insides and dragged Chiwa away as the man keeled over, Chiwa whistled and said "That was close! I'm gonna have to learn that trick of yours."

"That's not possible." Yuu said calmly.

"So what now?" Tomoko asked.

"What do you mean?" Chiwa asked.

"It's over," Yuu said, "At least it's about to be. The enemy is withdrawing; their rear guard is putting up a fight. Tosa-sensei says Taiko-sama anticipated an attack through the woods so she sent me to find you two."

"Just in time too." Chiwa nodded.

"I had the situation under control." Tomoko scoffed as she dusted herself off.

"Your situation, not mine." Chiwa scoffed, "So what now?"

"We rally with Kimiko-sensei and prepare, if the enemy does try through the trees we'll be ready." Yuu said.

"That won't be necessary." A new voice said; it was Tosa-senpai. "The enemy's finished . . . their army is retreating. We're to help mop up the rear guard which, for some reason isn't."

"But couldn't the enemy army just be regrouping." Chiwa pointed out.

"Whatever they're doing they're not going to ambush us through the trees, the main army has already moved into the clearing to regroup, we're to rejoin the ninja force under Raikage-sama and hunt the enemy army, see how far they're running and whether or not assault with the full army is advisable." Kimiko said, "Let's go."

Tomoko nodded and followed, she smiled weakly at Yuu, "Saved Chiwa and not me?"

"You had things under control." Yuu said, sounding embarrassed.

"Still, gosh the gesture you know?" Tomoko scoffed.

"Next time." The young man assured her.

"Oh please, you lost your chance, I'm never going to be in peril again . . ." Tomoko said.

They walked in silence for a while, then Chiwa said "You know I kind of thought an enemy would swoop down after you said that."

"I know, that's like the time they always do . . . I'm disappointed." Tomoko sighed.

* * *

Iwao struggled, his ninja were being slaughtered, he was down to two others, one had already made a run for it.

Iwao was wielding a stone spear he'd seized from one of his stone soldiers before the golem was destroyed, his chakra was low and he was out of kunai and shuriken.

He thrust out, piercing the chest of one enemy Samurai. He twisted the blade and tore it free with ferocity, he spun the spear around and slammed the butt of it into the neck of an enemy soldier, then swept it out striking the neck of a nearby man, bringing the blade into play again he slashed another Samurai.

Another Samurai came at him, this one wielding two swords.

They were chakra swords, one alive with wind chakra the other with lightning, Iwao staggered back, the Lightning Samurai charged at him.

Iwao raised his spear in defense, in his adrenaline addled state he forgot it was made of stone, the Samurai's lightning coated blade cut it in two and Iwao barely managed to dodge before the blade split his skull.

He spun around, keeping the bladed end of the broken spear in one hand to strike with and the blunted half in the other to block with, deflecting the Wind blade once and striking out with the spearhead for the Samurai's exposed chest.

Which was replaced with a log, Iwao's eyes widened, he was fighting a _ninja, _not a Samurai. He spun around and saw his foe descend on him, lightning blade leading. Iwao dodged the lightning blade and struck out with the spear, hoping to impale the samurai--or ninja.

The enemy ninja twisted, his wind blade was still coming for Iwao but the boy raised his stone club again to deflect it.

It had worked before.

But he'd made the mistake of assuming that the blades could only do one thing or another, the enemy's wind sword suddenly cackled with electricity and it shattered the stone protecting him.

The blade came in for Iwao, he had just enough time to think that he should substitute or something before it cut painfully into his shoulder.

It cut so deep he wasn't sure what kept him from just dying right there or at least blacking out but he still managed to stagger back, the blade coming free of his shoulder as its owner refused to let go of it.

Iwao stumbled and turned to run, his last remaining Shinobi guard came to his side but was quickly done away with by the Samurai-ninja, lightning swords cutting through the stone shield the man rose and through the man's outstretched hands, making further Jutsu impossible so that when the blades struck for his heart there was nothing he could do to deflect them.

Iwao saw it over his shoulder as he ran, holding his arm half afraid that it would fall off if he didn't.

He was filled with shame, he'd run from battle he was worthless and a failure in the eyes of the God-Emperor.

He ran and slammed into Gammo Katashi, he felt something hit his stomach.

Somewhere in the boy's head he recognized it as a kunai . . .

And he recognized when Katashi shoved it deeper and twisted it.

Iwao staggered back, gasping for air.

He fell to the ground, sitting in the dirt feeling the warm blood pour from his stomach and down his arm, he looked at Katashi in disbelief as the Jounin tossed away the kunai that he had stabbed Iwao with.

"Looks like I was too late to rescue you." Katashi said with a cruel smile, "Goodbye Juukei Iwao."

Iwao wanted to ask why, but his vision was hazing up, darkness settling in.

His lips moved but he couldn't find the breath to ask Katashi why he had done this; why he had betrayed the empire and even attacked him.

Why he had _murdered _him, Iwao felt the cold realization grip his heart as it threatened to stop beating.

He'd been murdered, he was about to die and his killer hadn't even bested him in combat, his killer had betrayed him; had betrayed their whole nation . . .

He fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood, he vaguely felt Katashi tare something from his flak jacket, but mostly he felt numb and cold or maybe numb with cold, he didn't know . . . he felt fear creeping over him now . . .

"Ah, the enemy's on their way. I don't have any time to really enjoy this, the bastards. But . . . if you're wondering _why_ . . . just ask my sister when you get to hell, and know that your bastard uncle won't be far behind."

"Em . . . per . . . or" Iwao whispered, and then the darkness consumed him.

His first real battle, his chance to prove he was a ninja worthy of his command and his rank and he'd failed.

And as he died he did not see the Emperor's face smiling down on him, the cold was not replaced with warmth, or light.

There was only darkness and then . . . nothing.

* * *

Sasuke staggered backwards, Suigetsu swore and Juugo sprang forward.

The boy who had once been Hatake Kotaro was covered by black marks that Sasuke knew all too well.

A pair of massive snakes shot out from under the deck and intercepted Juugo, they wrapped around him and Kotaro began the hand seals for Chidori.

Sasuke gripped his sword and charged for the snakes, Kotaro sprang for Juugo and Suigetsu grabbed Sasuke by the arm and shouted, "Get back!"

Juugo had lost control, he shook free of the snakes, ripping them to shreds with his spines and claws, he sprang for Kotaro and stretched out his much longer arm.

He caught the boy and crushed his skull before the lightning of Chidori could stab him, but Kotaro dissipated in a cloud of smoke.

"Shadow clone?" Suigetsu demanded but Sasuke saw it had been substitution and now Kotaro was--

"Sasuke-kun!" Karin shouted, throwing a pair of kunai at him.

Sasuke leapt up and the kunai slammed into his shadow and exploded, Hattori Kasumi leapt through the blast and Suigetsu sprang on her raising his sword high to bring it down on her, letting its massive weight do most of the work.

Sasuke came down in the midst of the blast Karin's explosive tags had made and using his mastery of fire he called the flames together and added them to his own Fireball Jutsu, blowing a ball of flame towards the enemy ninja.

The Five were definitely skilled, their bodies could be pushed beyond the point of repair unlike Sasuke's.

Shiroi came at him, Karin tried to stop her but Kurai's insects swarmed over Karin, and she stumbled back.

Back _over _the side of the ship.

She screamed and grabbed the railing, Sasuke ignored her, focusing instead on not letting Shiroi strike any of his chakra points.

"We're outnumbered!" Suigetsu swore as Kasumi fell into her shadow and emerged behind him, striking for his back with a kunai.

Sasuke knew that, and with Juugo raging and Karin hanging on for dear life with just one hand--a hand quickly becoming covered with insects--Sasuke couldn't see the situation getting better.

Kotaro was nimbly avoiding Juugo, Kasumi was evading Suigetsu, both of them were trying to ware their opponents down, Kurai was focusing some attention on getting Karin to let go but he was also sending part of his swam after Juugo now, no doubt deciding that draining the monstrous Juugo of his chakra would be the best bet to stopping him.

Shiroi was trying to seal Sasuke's chakra points, Yukio was now heading for Karin to finish her off.

He leapt onto the rail and raised his blade, Karin let go with a scream.

She fell off the side of the ship to the cold waters below, Sasuke felt the slightest twinge of sadness at the loss of an old friend but nothing more than that.

Karin had once again gotten herself into trouble trying to help instead of sticking to what she was good at--healing and otherwise keeping out of his way.

Now Yukio spun around and leapt for Sasuke, the Jounin roared and struck out at the younger man with a lightning-clad fist, which Yukio nimbly dodged and Sasuke felt Shiroi strike his right side twice, rapidly, painfully.

She struck out for another hit, striking Sasuke's shoulder and elbow, weakening but not stopping the Chidori.

She used substitution and Sasuke wind milled, trying to hit Yukio with the Chidori.

But Yukio leapt out of his way, Sasuke saw Kurai's swarm descending on him.

He swept his arm out, destroying several of the insects before his Chidori could dissipate, then he swatted more with his left hand.

The situation was getting desperate now, Karin was gone, Juugo was half covered in chakra sucking insects, Sasuke was fighting three opponents . . .

Suigetsu suddenly leapt back, surprising Kasumi who'd tried to emerge behind him again.

He began a Jutsu that Sasuke remembered, and soon from the blood spilled on deck a massive humanoid torso began to take shape.

It was headless, just a torso and arms, but those arms struck out not at the Five but at Juugo, washing him clean of the bugs attached to him and no doubt driving him insane with bloodlust.

Kasumi sprang for Suigetsu but the blood spirit's other hand struck out, grasping the girl in a surprisingly solid grip, holding her head.

It cranked violently, and Sasuke saw through the blood the girl's face suddenly change.

She was no longer an eighteen year old young woman, now she was a woman in her mid to late twenties, her eyes seemed almost to dissolve in her skull and the elemental dropped her.

"That's one down." Suigetsu crowed and Yukio immediately dropped his attack on Sasuke to keep the Mizukage occupied.

They were down Karin, the Five were down Kasumi . . . it was still anyone's game.

Shiroi came at him again, this time obscured by a swarm of bugs. Sasuke inhaled for a Fireball Jutsu to disperse the swarm before he met Shiroi once again in combat.

He smiled briefly and thought _I taught them to work together like that . . . _

**To Be Continued . . .**


	37. Four Down?

**Chapter Thirty Five**

Suigetsu couldn't sustain the elemental for long, not if he were fighting members of the Five.

Killing Kasumi had been blind luck, but he was pleased at the way Sasuke seemed impressed. It turned out that she hadn't been able to fall into her shadow without being in contact with it, so once he'd gotten her off the ground she'd been finished.

Or maybe she'd run out of chakra, she must have been fighting Hyuga Neji before after all.

Suigetsu saw the pressure on Sasuke; luckily Juugo was keeping Hatake at bay. The boy was working overtime to resist Juugo's berserker rage.

Suigetsu was still irritated over the loss of Karin but unlike Juugo he wouldn't lose his cool. He was aboard an enemy vessel without any real support, he'd just lost his tactical advisor and he was up against four members of Orochimaru's Five.

But he was one of the Ninja world's Five, one of the Five Kages; he had to be able to beat these little whippersnapper sons of--

"Ahh!" Sasuke roared and Suigetsu's attention was torn away from Yukio--his blood spirit was an adequate defender--and looked to see Sasuke was losing his battle against both Shiroi and Kurai.

Odd that . . . an Aburame's insect swarm was tough but not invulnerable and the Hyuga clan had many shortcomings, especially ones that a Sharingan user would notice.

Was Sasuke up to something? Suigetsu couldn't chance it; he couldn't let Sasuke fall into Orochimaru's hands.

He sprang forward, willing the spirit to go after Aburame.

Cover the bugs in blood and stop them from flying, if there were blood suckers or drinkers it should still take them a while to get back into the fight.

He raised his sword to deflect a blow from Yukio, and then threw himself backwards; Hatake Kotaro had run towards him, leading an enraged Juugo along.

In such a state Juugo wouldn't tell friend from foe, Suigetsu's thoughts to cover Juugo in blood were suddenly not so brilliant.

Juugo was berserk enough from the blood on the deck, applying that blood to him had just thrown him over the edge . . .

He dodged and Juugo slammed into Yukio's sand.

The boy had probably expected it to hold the monstrosity back . . . it didn't.

Yukio had the sense to substitute out of the situation as Juugo tore his sand barrier, but the enraged transformed Juugo smelled him or something and threw his claw out, slashing Yukio's back as he reappeared.

With his sand still scattered he had no proper defense, at least not so far as Suigetsu could see.

But the blow wasn't enough to take him out of the fight, or kick him out of his avatar.

He summoned his sand back, transforming it into spikes which slammed into Juugo but didn't actually pierce into him. He roared and Suigetsu charged for Yukio with his sword.

He saw from the corner of his eye the flash as Hatake Kotaro sprang forward, Chidori in both his hands.

Yukio was trying to pin Juugo so that Kotaro could kill him . . . Suigetsu wasn't going to allow that, he still needed Juugo, at least for now.

He continued running for Yukio now intending to finish off the sand shinobi and stop Kotaro before it was too late.

He lashed out with the sword, the blade buried itself in Yukio's torso, the man dropped to the deck like a rag doll, his features melting back to those of the unfortunate but now permanently free host as Suigetsu realized his mistake.

Yukio had meant to be defeated, he was probably low on chakra and his body was already damaged.

So he'd used it in a manner that proved most useful, he'd used it to get Suigetsu's blade stuck.

With Kotaro oncoming Suigetsu had no options, he understood now that he and not Juugo was the primary target of the attack; with Yukio down his sand was no longer dangerous and Juugo should be free to evade Kotaro.

Which meant that he was bound to be Kotaro's primary target.

But then . . . he wasn't the typical opponent. Things like this could have doomed any other member of the Seven Swordsmen but for Suigetsu . . .

He simply took on a liquid form and with him came the blade, freeing itself of the corpse so that it could join the rest of him before he returned to human.

Juugo too was free of the sand that had impeded his movement and being a puddle wasn't such a bad thing for Suigetsu since being as close to him in a human body now was pretty dangerous.

He solidified his head and watched as Juugo sprang for Kotaro.

And the boy ducked low, thrusting both his hands out, it was still far too early for the Chidori to stab Juugo but--

Twin bolts of lightning shot forth from Kotaro's hands, slamming into the deck, one puncturing it and leaving a hole the other slashing across Juugo's left arm and knocking the much larger man to the ground.

Suigetsu wasn't pleased.

With a roar he resumed his human shape and leapt for Kotaro but before he could strike a swarm of insects engulfed him.

He coughed and regretted having shouted a battle cry because his mouth was full of bugs now.

* * *

Yomiko stayed close to Shikamaru-sensei, his shadow weaving through the throng of enemy sailors and forcing them to turn their weapons on each other.

Shikamaru-sensei's Shadow Puppetry Jutsu was terrifying indeed, Yomiko shuddered to think of what it might be like to suddenly find her moving to harm a comrade or be intentionally harmed by a comrade against her own will, unable to control her body.

Then again when these men had control of their bodies they chose to aggress against Konoha, Suna, the alliance, the young ninja felt little real sympathy for them.

She was careful not to throw too many shuriken, some allied soldiers were mixed in the throng, some ninja were fighting as well and she didn't want to hurt a friend on accident.

The battle seemed to be dying down, the enemy's fleet was split up and hadn't effectively attacked on their own, or so it seemed to Yomiko.

Though she was sticking with Shikamaru-sensei Naomasa and Kyoko were both off on their own. The enemy's fleet was made up of many metal war ships but also a fair number of wooden vessels, the wooden ships being cheaper and easier to make Yomiko assumed.

They were exactly the sort of thing that Kyoko, gliding overhead on her battle fan and directing however many minions she'd summoned to this fight could easily take out. Sink the ships and they were effectively useless.

And Naomasa's job was to make sure nobody killed Shiho-senpai, who'd been underperforming during the battle.

Yomiko's job was to guard their Sensei more or less, since losing him kind of put their nation in danger of losing the war. She wondered if Shikamaru-sensei had secretly taken measures to prevent that in the case of his death.

She had faith that her Sensei would have a way for them to win even if he died, maybe a manual of tactics for Shiho, or something.

But even so she wasn't interested in letting her Sensei get killed, not because she didn't want to test the theory but because . . . well, he was her Sensei.

Even if she was all grown up and a Jounin now he was still and would remain her Sensei.

It was like guarding family.

An enemy soldier sprang towards them; Yomiko's sharp eyes spotted the shadow that connected him to Shikamaru-sensei so she moved out of his way while keeping herself between him and Shikamaru. The soldier rushed past them and slammed his spear into an enemy Samurai, who in turn spun his katana and decapitated the man.

The battle on deck was just about over; the remaining soldiers were either trying to flee to lower decks, or surrendering.

But Yomiko could see the look they all gave her Sensei . . . looks of unbridled fear, they knew it was him who had controlled their friends, had controlled some of them, and he probably seemed every bit the demon that recent legends had made ninja out to be.

Nara Shikamaru: Konoha's Genius, Legendary Lazy-ass Ninja, Chief Strategist . . . demon.

Yomiko wondered what she looked like to the defeated soldiers.

"Scuttle the ship, Shikamaru?" Shiho asked.

Shikamaru shook his head, "Remove their weapons then leave them be, the ship can pick up any survivors."

"But the men aboard, if we let them they'll only rise up to fight us again." Shiho said.

"That's their decision, but there are a lot of living men in the waters and I won't leave them to drown without knowing there's at least one ship to save them." Shikamaru said, "They're our enemies today but they're also human beings, individual souls and many of them didn't sign up for the army, many of them didn't want to be here today."

Yomiko considered that. It was true that the enemy was largely made up of conscripted soldiers, she hadn't forgotten that . . . but it'd been easier to pretend it wasn't true. Thinking that she might be essentially executing someone else's slaves wasn't nearly as acceptable as telling herself she was killing off dangerous enemies who would kill her, her mother, her whole community if they had the chance.

It helped that the latter was true . . . it didn't much help that the former was as well.

But unlike Naomasa Yomiko wasn't going to let thoughts like that keep her from doing what she needed to do. She was a Jounin--okay a Special Jounin--and she'd serve her country, and her village in accordance with that capacity.

So she met the scared or hateful states of the enemy soldiers and just scowled at them, "You're lucky, Shikamaru-sama is going to let you live to round up the survivors . . . live to fight another day, I guess."

"That's the risk they take," Shikamaru-sensei said, "If they choose to come after us and ignore their comrades then clearly I made the wrong decision and they need to be wiped out at that time. If they gather up their comrades and continue on to their objective, whatever it was, they probably won't meet anyone as generous as I am there. Their best option is to gather all the survivors and return to port in another day or so."

He said it so the crowd of surrendered soldiers would hear it.

It was up to them now what they decided to do with the time he'd given them, they could die one way, another, or they could choose life not only for themselves but for the survivors left behind after this battle . . . preferably the survivors of both sides, Yomiko was pretty sure there would be some allied sailors or ninja who got knocked overboard, or who were wounded in the water.

She wondered about sharks.

She decided she was just glad she wasn't in the water.

* * *

Sasuke's Chidori cut through the swarm of insects, he knew that Kurai couldn't possibly have an unlimited amount of them and at the rate that his former student was losing bugs he'd soon be forced to resort to other methods of attack.

Shiroi had successfully sealed several of Sasuke's chakra points but not enough to really stop him or to make that little Jutsu of hers lethal.

Nevertheless she'd tried to use it twice already and Sasuke was being very careful to avoid being hit with it.

Shiroi was wearing down, Kurai was almost out of bugs.

It meant this battle was almost over, if Sasuke could outlast his students he'd be victorious.

Another victory on his road.

He sprang for Shiroi, she'd thrust her hand out to seal a chakra point and instead quickly used it to deflect Sasuke's Chidori.

She grabbed his wrist and threw his arm wide, his other hand shot out and connected with her stomach though, doubling her over.

She lunged forward, head butting him in the stomach.

She had a kunai, her hand moved to stab Sasuke in the gut, Kurai's insects chewed away at Sasuke, draining his chakra and diminishing his Chidori.

He was still able to raise his hand and bring it down on Shiroi's back, the lightning of the Chidori burning her clothes and had it been at full strength it would have tore away a portion of her torso.

Such as it was it still left a horrible burn that would never heal and would probably be fatal for her host.

Her kunai should have clattered to the ground but resolutely Shiroi managed to bring it up to Sasuke, she would have stabbed him but he substituted and appeared outside the swarm of insects, twisting in midair he blew a ball of flame that consumed both Shiroi's body and the bugs that had surrounded him.

He was starting to feel weak, many of those insects must have had poison, possibly a paralysis poison so that the Five could take him back to Orochimaru to have his eyes extracted or his body possessed, whichever Orochimaru decided to do.

But Sasuke would hold out just a little longer.

Kurai came at him, a kunai in each hand. They fought, Sasuke was moving sluggishly, Kurai was moving brilliantly, Sasuke had always considered the Aburame boy to be his best student.

Kurai wasn't too aggressive despite Shiroi having just been burned to a crisp, perhaps it was because he knew she wasn't in any real danger or perhaps he was simply that in control of his emotions.

Either way as Sasuke grew slower and weaker Kurai just kept moving at the proper pace.

Then a massive arm came and knocked Kurai off his feet.

Juugo pinned the other Shinobi and raised his claw in the air, the insects that Kurai had left--they had been keeping Suigetsu detained--swarmed onto Juugo but it was over the minute Juugo had the Aburame traitor pinned.

Juugo brought his heavy transformed arm down on Kurai's head, there was a loud crack and in an instant what was left of Kurai's features changed to those of an older man with a different hair color.

The insects dispersed, some continuing their attack but most just flying away aimlessly. It wasn't typical, Sasuke had been told that with the death of an Aburame his insect swarm would fight on fiercely, still defending their hive as if they didn't realize that their host was dead.

Perhaps Kurai retained some control over the insects over a distance and had called them away, Sasuke wondered if the Aburame bugs could make the trip across the ocean, then decided "why not?"

He fell to his knees and felt familiar hands on his back, and a horribly scarred arm thrust in front of him.

"Come on, Sasuke, before you black out!" Karin told him, "Bite my arm!"

Sasuke did as she said and he felt a bit better.

But he didn't take too much of her chakra, when he felt good enough to stand he shoved her away, "What happened to you? You fell off the ship!"

"And clung to the side," Karin said, "I decided I'd be a nuisance so I didn't climb back up until I sensed that it was over and you were hurt."

Sasuke nodded as Karin went over to Suigetsu who was leaning on his sword trying not to look winded.

"Hatake got away." Suigetsu said, "He just vanished."

"I sensed that too," Karin said, "He leapt overboard, went underwater then took off at a ridiculous speed . . . I didn't sense a summoning Jutsu, and I don't believe he has aquatic minions anyway."

"Got away on a ship then." Suigetsu said.

"Underwater?" Karin asked.

"Not that farfetched," Sasuke admitted.

"Wouldn't I have sensed the crew?"

"Not if the ship were designed to keep you from doing so." Suigetsu said, "There are plenty of Jutsus for tricking sensors, even ones as powerful and precise as you. One of them could have been applied to a ship."

"Then why did I still sense Hatake for so long?" Karin demanded petulantly.

"If it's underwater it'd probably have to surface before he got _in _the ship, come on woman why does my Chief Strategist need these things explained? In Kirigakure we've been experimenting with submersible war ships, looks like Sound's beat us to the punch is all. Next time we should try to capture it."

"Stealth submersibles isn't a good sign, they could doom our fleet!" Karin snapped.

"Yes, see here the damage they've done what with out utterly shocking victory over the enemy . . . Is anyone going to pull Juugo off that carcass?" Suigetsu asked, unfazed.

Sasuke put a hand on Karin's shoulder, seeing this as a good opportunity to gain favor without having to resort to sexual acts, "It's a concern, Karin, but nothing we shouldn't already be prepared to handle. Right now the thing to do is lick our wounds and get back to the road to war."

"And scuttle this ship," Suigetsu added, and waved his hand.

His Blood Spirit poured itself over the side, a moment later the ship shook violently enough that Juugo stopped pummeling the dead body of Kurai's host and seemed to manage to gain a measure of control of himself as Suigetsu ordered the return to their own fleet.

The Konoha command vessel was closest to them, and it was where they headed, depleted as their chakra was it made little sense to take a long stroll to the _Amagiri _over open waters.

* * *

Kotaro slid into the hatch of the submersible, "Captain, turn this boat around."

"Sir, shouldn't we get back to Waves?"

"No point. My comrades will have returned to the Emperor to tell him the news, Waves will be as prepared as it can be. I want to follow the enemy fleet. They shouldn't be able to detect us unless we surface. When the fighting starts in Waves this ship will be in position to start attacking their rear and I'll be in position to assassinate their head."

"Very good sir." The Captain said, and ordered his men to dive deeper and follow the fleet.

Kotaro was glad that the vessel didn't have any windows, he imagined the scene beneath the waves was a gruesome one.

Ships sinking to the depths, bodies being fed on by sea creatures, many of the bodies were probably sinking to the ocean's floor now too.

But even if the submersible had been transparent Kotaro would gladly have looked at the sacrifice the Empire's soldiers had made not because it made him feel patriotic but because gruesome as the scene might be it was better than returning to the palace, or some other Imperially controlled zone . . . since he'd come out to sea he hadn't forgotten anything that had happened, had forgotten little of what was said, his memory was . . . normal.

Maybe it was because it wasn't his real body, whatever was happening to his real body, his physical mind wasn't affecting his host body or his conscious mind contained within.

It was freedom . . . he wondered if it was the reason Kasumi went on so many missions for the Serpent Shrines, and why she was the one most aware of their problem.

Perhaps he and Kurai by restraining themselves had been damaging themselves . . . it was food for thought.

And while he could think Kotaro planned to.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	38. Troubles

**Chapter Thirty Six**

Shikamaru leaned against the rail of the ship and looked over the water.

Bodies, parts of ships . . . it was one of the first times Shikamaru had seen the after-effect of a major naval engagement, it wasn't any more or less grizzly than a land battle but it wouldn't be long before all the signs that a battle had been fought would be lost beneath the depths. There would be no monuments erected, or grave markers for the thousands of soldiers who'd died today.

But the fleet couldn't wait around for eulogies or even to seek out any survivors, a few enemy vessels were being left behind intact to search out their survivors, having surrendered there was little to be done, the consensus was against simply killing the surrendered enemies, and no soldiers could be spared to ensure they didn't cause further trouble.

It would simply have to suffice that they didn't have the strength left to harass the village hidden in mist, and had no idea where the exiled village was, and Emiko guessed they wouldn't find it accidentally.

Shikamaru considered how much they were risking on what Emiko was guessing.

They'd left paltry defense for the village, a few Chuunin and ninja students. If an attack were to occur it was possible that the small defense would suffice, but everyone was hoping that the attack on the mainland would be the best defense for the islands.

There would be another meeting aboard the Konoha flagship, which meant another chance to see Temari and hopefully at last a good opportunity to send Sumiko home.

Shikamaru saw Sasuke and the Mizukage's squad come aboard along with Neji whom they must have met over the water since he'd seen them running across the water's surface from their last scuttled ship. They probably didn't know yet that Gaara had wanted a meeting, this had probably just been the ship closest to them.

Shikamaru went down to meet them on the deck but when Sasuke came aboard his legs buckled under him and Sakura-who'd gotten back earlier with Choujuurou-rushed over to him.

It was a bit worrying, Sasuke was one of their top shinobi after all.

But it was also sort of a relief that, barring Sakura's skills being too effective of Sasuke's injuries too minor, the proud Uchiha might not actually make it to the meeting, thus sparing Shikamaru the trouble of dealing with him.

He just didn't feel like he had the energy for it, he was tiring much more easily lately. He noted the way Sasuke avoided acknowledging Sakura, there was a definite air of shame. It amused Shikamaru a bit that the Uchiha was capable of feeling shame, and wasn't wailing at the world itself for somehow changing it's gravity resulting in his stumble.

Sakura led him away, with bespectacled Karin following along. Shikamaru might have inquired after Sasuke's condition but with two high powered medics odds were he'd survive. He spoke instead to the Mizukage, "How'd it go?"

"Fine, fine. Ran into the Sound Five, got most of 'em."

"Most?" Shikamaru asked.

"All except Hatake, he high tailed it." Suigetsu shrugged.

Shikamaru considered that. Kotaro had been a younger Kakashi, talented, brilliant, and now as an enemy extremely dangerous.

"This has put us behind schedule, do you think we'll still be able to proceed with the plan?" Suigetsu asked.

"If a half day's delay could ruin the plan it wouldn't be much of a plan would it?" Shikamaru shrugged.

"Well I can't wait to get to shore and start raising hell," The Mizukage chuckled. "As soon as Sasuke's set right we'll head back to our ship."

"Actually, Gaara wanted a meeting." Shikamaru said.

"Huh. Well I'm tired . . . tell you what, I'll just let Sasuke-san stand in for me. Juugo, you'll stick with Sasuke, the two of you take notes and relay the information to me."

"Why not leave Karin?" Juugo asked, "She's our chief strategist."

"And if I leave her and Sasuke unsupervised she'll be on maternity leave before we make landfall." The Mizukage laughed.

Juugo looked confused, Shikamaru said "Well he'd have to consent to her first, wouldn't he?"

The Mizukage laughed and suddenly Shikamaru realized what Sasuke was really ashamed of, why he tried not to look at Sakura.

_I _so _don't need this. _Shikamaru told himself, and his stomach suddenly twisted in pain.

He stoically kept from expressing that pain in front of the Mizukage, he didn't want Suigetsu, whom he trusted about as far as he could be thrown, to know that he might be getting weak.

Shikamaru considered who he'd ask to carry on for him if he died before Konoha was retrieved.

It would have been Kotaro in a different world where Konoha hadn't fallen and where Shikamaru wasn't so seriously considering a successor so soon.

He wondered . . . would Mist try something? If he were gone would Suigetsu try something? It was crazy to think that he was in any way keeping the Mizukage back. Physically he doubted he could stand up to the Mizukage, it was only intellectually that he could overcome him.

And yet Shikamaru had no doubts that if it came to it he would outthink Karin and the rest of the Mist village . . .

Shikamaru considered that Suigetsu, like Sasuke might be more interested in seeing who he could match physically, but unlike Sasuke might recognize the dangers posed by someone he _couldn't _match mentally.

He was getting ahead of himself. He had no reason to suspect that Suigetsu was up to anything or that his presence and survival would stop him.

Suigetsu went to the sickbay with Juugo, presumably to get Karin and inform Sasuke of the meeting, Shikamaru saw Gaara's ship coming up alongside his own, Gaara and Temari were on deck, as was Sumiko, asleep in her mother's arms.

Shikamaru sighed, Sumiko was lucky to be able to sleep after such a turbulent fight. Then again maybe she'd slept _through _it, safe-relatively speaking-below decks.

But she wouldn't be safe at all if they didn't send her back to the island soon.

However if they sent a messenger bird now the enemy might follow it and find the island . . . he'd ask Emiko what to do once the meeting was over, but he needed to act quickly.

The thought of Sumiko being in danger just made his stomach hurt more.

Now instead of hoping that Sakura had trouble repairing Sasuke he was hoping she managed to finish her work quickly because he was probably going to need some form of healing himself.

He forced a smile as his wife and brother-in-law came aboard, he didn't want her to worry; even if it felt like her husband was being eaten alive from the inside out.

* * *

Ryu stood at attention when Lord Kurai came into the room, "The enemy fleet will be here in short order, the armies from Wind are delayed we're all that stand between our enemies and the total conquest of the Land of Waves." The bug herder said through gritted teeth.

"Not necessarily," Okatsu said. "The Emperor meant for our little experiments to intercept the enemy after all."

"Intercept them _if _they made it past the army." Ryu pointed out.

"Which they've effectively done," Okatsu said, "They've made it past the army because the army won't be here. Thus, while the army remains intact it has still been more or less defeated."

"Granted, but do we trust them to be set loose in the city?" Kurai asked.

"Do we care?" Okatsu asked.

"We do." Kurai said sternly.

"Well they can be controlled with simple command phrases spoken by the right people. I mean a few might get out of sight and eat some children but that's a chance I'm happily willing to take." Okatsu shrugged.

"Ma'am, if we're going to be a bigger threat to the Empire's people than the rebels-" Ryu began but Okatsu cut him off.

"I'll burn this city to the ground before I see it in enemy hands, Lord Orochimaru entrusted us with the defense of his hard won empire and here after a bit of difficulty you're ready to surrender?"

"Nobody said that, but we lost much of the fleet when our task forces were ambushed," Kurai snapped, "If the Lightning navy aids them in taking the ports our soldiers will stand no chance."

"You are one of the Emperor's five fingers, together you form his first . . . act like it. I trained the Five to be the best of the best, to be the greatest ninja of your generation and you shy from battle? Only Hatake managed to survive your little sea adventure!"

"We encountered Uchiha!" Kurai growled, "Are you simply incapable of remembering simple details?"

"Your purpose is to bring our Lord that single, solitary man." Okatsu said, folding her arms, "How is it that all five of you together failed? How is it that against Uchiha's lackey whore your stupid slut of a wife failed? How is it that the Sound Five are thus far little more than a posturing social club? Are you or are you not the greatest ninja in this world?"

Kurai scowled, he took a threatening step towards Okatsu and she met his gaze with cold intensity.

Ryu felt nervous, he felt like he didn't belong in the room anymore, he wanted very much to leave.

Kurai lowered his gaze and said "You're right, Sensei . . . we're failing our Lord, I will discipline the others and myself when an opportunity arrives."

"Spare me." Okatsu said coldly, "_I _will discipline the lot of you when I get back to the capital after we defeat the Konoha rebels. Hatake too, he may have survived but he let the rest of you die; he's just as much a failure."

Kurai bowed and Ryu was shocked to see a member of the Sound Five start out trying to command the defense and then be effectively put in his place-cast several places lower in fact-by a middle-aged woman whose ninja prowess shouldn't have been anywhere near that of a member of the Five.

Though she _had _trained them, that must count for something.

Okatsu dismissed Kurai and he left, Ryu waited until he was gone to ask the older woman "Does it concern anyone else that Hatake-sama hasn't returned? What if he's . . . defected?"

"His true body would be done away with that instant." Okatsu said simply, "His mind is under fairly regular watch, though he can't be monitored while on assignment. The moment he returns to his body-and he'd have to eventually-we'd detect his betrayal. If necessary the Emperor can also force Hatake to return to his body."

"I see . . ." Ryu hesitated.

"I don't care." Okatsu glowered, "Just get my little bundles of joy ready, set them in pairs at various points with larger numbers at points of strategic importance . . . consult with the Daimyo and his staff. When the enemy arrives I want the experiments as our first line of defense if they breach into the city, but I also want ninja prepared to mop up the mess afterwards."

"Yes ma'am." Ryu nodded.

"Oh and Ryu . . ." Okatsu said.

"Ma'am?" Ryu asked.

"When we get back the Five will be harshly punished for their failure against Uchiha. Yukio would have to be punished as well. I know you're his friend but I will tell you just once; Uchiha is beyond you or myself, only the Five stand a chance and if you interfere or attempt to aid Yukio you will be killed. If not by Uchiha, then by me, because I will not allow you to stand between my students and the realization of their purpose. Are we clear?"

"Of course ma'am." Ryu said softly, and left the room to see the Daimyo and begin setting up the defenses.

He wondered, given how relieved he felt to be away from Okatsu, if Kurai's sudden show of being browbeaten was just that; a show. Had he accepted Okatsu's threats just to get away from her?

Probably not. Anyway it didn't matter, soon enough he'd see combat again and the Five would redeem themselves by capturing Uchiha.

Soon enough the experimental prisoners, the "mutants" as Okatsu had called them, would be let loose on an unsuspecting and barely protected city in order to save it from an enemy army.

There might be a moral, or a joke in there somewhere, but for the life of him Ryu couldn't see it. All he saw was a small army of experiment prisoners being let loose on friend and foe alike while the paltry force in the city tried to fend off the enemies who'd defeated four of the Sound Five.

* * *

"Your arms and legs are just covered in bug bites," Sakura said as she rubbed more ointment on Sasuke, "But you weren't actually poisoned."

"Or he was and I cured it." Karin suggested.

"Maybe. Maybe Kurai didn't want to poison you, Sasuke-kun." Sakura suggested.

"Kurai doesn't do things halfway, not when it comes to combat." Sasuke said thoughtfully, "I felt poisoned at the time . . . but even after biting Karin I didn't feel much better. Are you sure you didn't cure me of any poison, Sakura?"

"Absolutely." Sakura said.

"So obviously I did it." Karin reasoned.

"Or he was just tired from lack of chakra and he's had time to regain it." Sakura suggested.

"Why are you so determined to undermine my ability?" Karin asked stiffly.

"I'm not," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes, "I just find it difficult to believe that you cured him of Aburame poison just by letting him have a bite on your arm; that's all. I mean you weren't even trying to."

"I wasn't trying to do anything but make him whole again so that means I wasn't trying _not _to cure poison." Karin said.

Sakura hated that line of reasoning but she wasn't interested in arguing with Karin so she just said "That's true. I guess I didn't think of it that way."

_Because I'm _sane _and all. _Sakura thought.

Karin looked smug until her tall friend Juugo came into the sickbay, "Karin, Mizukage-sama says it's time to go."

"Really? I thought they had another unnecessary meeting." Sasuke said gruffly.

"They're not unnecessary, with this delay we may not be able to get to Naruto at the appointed time so Gaara probably wants to know if there's some solution, he needs Shikamaru and Emiko for that and since the fleet belongs to Water the Mizukage might as well be there too." Sakura told him.

"There _is _a meeting." Juugo said in an almost eerily calm voice, "Sasuke will be attending as the Mizukage's stand in, and I'll be his second."

"Joy." Sasuke sighed.

"Why aren't I invited?" Karin demanded.

Juugo shrugged, Sakura could see from the man's face that he didn't want to say why so she suggested, "Maybe your Lord just feels that Sasuke can better handle the talks since he's from Konoha and knows Gaara so well. Juugo is perfectly capable of defending Mists' interests if Sasuke misrepresents the Mizukage."

"He probably just doesn't want me and Sasuke-kun running off and getting whoever captains this bucket to perform a wedding at sea." Karin mused and headed for the door.

Her back was turned so Sakura felt it was safe to roll her eyes, the scoff that also escaped her was accidental but luckily it seemed Karin didn't notice.

"Never mind her," Sasuke said, "thanks for fixing me up, Sakura-chan."

"No problem . . . do you need any medical care, Juugo-san?"

"No." The giant man said calmly.

"All right then, I guess we should go to this meeting then." Sakura said with forced enthusiasm.

At least she got to go to a meeting with Sasuke and Karin didn't.

Sasuke stood up and Juugo took up a position to his side as if he were a bodyguard, and Sakura supposed he probably thought he was.

Juugo was a very quiet person, he was pretty much always calm though sometimes, like now, it was obvious that that calm was forced and that he was focusing very hard on maintaining it. She wondered if it was nerves, or if the Mizukage suspected some more important discussions or something.

As they got further from the sickbay Juugo seemed to grow more relaxed and then Sakura felt like she understood, "You don't like infirmaries, Juugo-san?"

"No." He said flatly. "The blood, the carnage."

"Carnage?" Sakura laughed, "Sorry, I guess I never thought of it that way . . . I'm sorry, it must have been difficult for you to have to retrieve Sasuke-kun from there."

"Suigetsu likes them even less than I do . . . that's why he told me to go get Karin." Juugo said with a shrug.

Sakura frowned, and Sasuke said, "He never had a problem with hospitals before, he was just being lazy."

Juugo said nothing but Sakura sensed he _wanted _to say something, so Sakura supplied what she guessed the six and a half foot tall shinobi probably wanted to say; "It's been a long time Sasuke-kun, Suigetsu is bound to be a little different than you remember. Anyway lots of people dislike hospitals, or in this case sickbays."

Sasuke shrugged and the trio reached the bridge. Juugo held the door open for them and Sasuke gestured for Sakura to go in first, she stepped into the doorway just in time to hear Taisho Hirate slam his fist down on the table and shout, "That's ludicrous, it's _suicide_!"

"Uh . . . gentlemen first." Sakura said, backing up and waving the two men into the room ahead of her.

* * *

Karin scoffed at Suigetsu when she reached the flagship again, he'd been waiting on deck, likely for Sasuke but she'd act as if she thought he was waiting for her.

"I didn't take you for the jealous type, don't want me alone with Sasuke-kun too much, Suigetsu?"

"Mizukage to you in front of the men." Suigetsu warned her.

"Yeah, yeah. So what's the problem? Why am I here and not there? Why did you skip out on the meeting when it could be important?"

"To talk to you, obviously." Suigetsu scoffed.

"What, you mean you really _are _the jealous type?" Karin raised her eyebrows and adjusted her glasses.

Suigetsu rolled his eyes, "Don't play stupid, you're too good at it. You know I want to discuss the things you may or may not have told Sasuke. If our plans are going to proceed properly we need to be on the same page."

"Well given that I had to write most of the pages it's easier for me to skim." Karin scoffed.

Suigetsu gave her a very hard look, "I'm not playing games Karin, this is the future of the entire Village Hidden in Mist we're discussing in case you've forgotten."

"Fine, fine, fine," Karin shrugged, "Let's hit the mess hall then and discuss it over lunch. Really there's not _that _much to tell, I mean Sasuke and I didn't do all _that _much talking."

"And yet it would seem you said too much, wouldn't it?" Suigetsu scoffed.

"Spare me. I said everything I meant to and exactly what I needed to say to make Sasuke clay in my hands. Even now he thinks I'm nothing more than a hanger-on, a fan who never grew out of her affection for him. He has no idea that I'm the one using _him_."

Neither did Suigetsu of course.

**To Be Continued . . .**

Note: This chapter was delayed because my computer died on me and took a good week to get working right again, this chapter wasn't finished at the time and I had to restart pretty much from scratch once things were running again. That said this chapter should have been up last week so I'll be posting another chapter later this same weekend.


	39. Hatching a Scheme

**Chapter Thirty Seven**

"Forgive me," Sasuke said dryly, "I've arrived late . . . what suicidal act has the Taisho so worked up?"

Shikamaru smiled weakly, "Well I had wanted to wait until you arrived to explain it, but-"

"Splitting the fleet." Taisho Ito said simply, interrupting Shikamaru though the Konoha ninja didn't much mind.

He didn't feel like repeating himself.

"Nara-san wants to send part of the fleet ahead, our fastest ships by themselves loaded with virtually all of our ninja with the rest of the fleet trailing behind."

Shikamaru shrugged, Sasuke just stared.

"And . . ." Sasuke asked.

Shikamaru shrugged, "The fastest ships aren't exactly the biggest. We'd be sending the ninja on light destroyers with the heavier ships lagging behind."

"Our fleet would show up and be crushed." Taisho Hirate said.

"If we can arrive in the night it shouldn't be a problem," Shikamaru explained, "The ninja unload off the ships and hit the city, capture the ports and guard stations we'd bypass the fleet."

"Besides . . . the fleet wouldn't be without an escort." Sasuke said.

"That's right . . . the Super Destroyers have some pretty powerful engines." Juugo nodded.

"So that's how many, three capital ships against the enemy fleet?" Temari raised an eyebrow.

"Only if we fail to arrive before sunrise," Shikamaru said.

"Even then the enemy fleet would outgun us, if Lightning arrived late and our ships were caught-"

"The enemy wouldn't be able to spend too much time worrying about the ships because they'd know the city was crawling with shinobi." Sasuke said. "I support Konoha's chief strategist, I believe we should get to the enemy as quickly as possible. In fact if you're all afraid then let the _Amagiri_ and her sister ships take the ninja to war and then fall back to wait for the fleet and Lightning's reinforcements."

Shikamaru noticed that Sumiko, who'd woken and started drawing in a corner was tugging on her mother's arm.

Temari hadn't bothered sending Sumiko away since Gaara insisted the meeting would be brief enough that it shouldn't matter, but things were turning out longer than expected and all the loud talk had woken the girl who'd seemed to listen with interest then wander off not caring.

Temari sighed at her daughter then saw the picture and laughed.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and Temari smirked, "Has anyone considered spotters?"

"What?" Sakura asked.

"Three Super Destroyers and escorts," Temari explained, "our entire ninja force and the cover of darkness . . . the answer is really obvious and we're all ignoring it."

"They're sure to have sensors so a night attack on the fleet is impossible." Shikamaru said.

"And if we attack in the dark all we'll do is waste time and ammunition." Ito added.

"Or . . ." Temari shrugged, "Our Fire ninja _act _like Fire ninja . . ."

"Again, the enemy's sensors . . ." Shikamaru said.

"If we attack them with fire," Temari insisted, "the Destroyers will know what to shoot at. We'll see them, they _won't _see us. Our own sensors will find the enemy's ships easily enough, our ships attack under the cover of darkness while some of our ninja light up the enemy fleet, the rest of them hit the ports and the city, while the enemy garrison rushes to repel the "imminent" troop transports our ninja slip in, capture the capital building and the Daimyo and force his surrender . . . or kill him, whatever the situation calls for."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Temari, he'd had similar thoughts the moment Sasuke mentioned sending the Super Destroyers, but he'd written them off.

Technically it was a better plan but it also held a great deal of risk for the already too small ninja force. For starters anyone involved in the fire attack might as well be considered KIA the moment the leap off the ships. For those who aren't detected by sensors and intercepted by a hail fire of bolts and arrows the actual job of setting fire to a military ship crewed by soldiers and ninja and then escaping and moving on to another ship was fairly dangerous and in the darkness-which was required for this plan to work-there'd be no way of keeping tabs on them, no way of telling who was in danger, who needed help.

If they were injured, or captured they were finished.

If they ran our of chakra on the sea they might drown.

"Don't tell me your daughter came up with that plan." Sasuke said dryly.

"She came up with the whole setting the ships on fire thing, I figured out the rest." Temari said, proudly displaying Sumiko's drawing for the rest of the room-Sumiko looked pretty pleased-ignoring Sasuke's tone.

"Well if a _child _can think it up," Shikamaru scoffed at Sasuke, "I suppose all that's left is to decide who signs up for the suicide mission."

"I'll go." Sasuke said, "Obviously. I'm the best fire element ninja in the fleet."

"Quite a boast," Shiho chuckled, "I think that Sarutobi Konohamaru, or even Sarutobi Yomiko might-"

"Fine," Shikamaru interrupted Shiho, not wanting Sasuke to in any way consider Yomiko a rival, "Uchiha leads, his eyes will be an asset in the darkness. For this mission we'll ask for volunteers."

"I'll watch them." Gaara said. "I'll use my sand-eye Jutsu to keep tabs on our ninja if it seems like they might need aid."

"I'll get them to the ships quickly." Temari shrugged, "I bet Kyoko-chan will be willing to do the same. We can glide there and arrive before anyone can do anything about it. Even if a sensor picks us up they won't be able to do anything about it before we do our work."

"Temari, two gliders won't be enough." Shikamaru said.

"I don't see why not." Temari said, "The added mobility and speed means we don't actually need to board the enemy ships, we fly over them, have a couple of fire shinobi aboard to blow a fire ball or two and we're in and out."

"We'll see who can summon aerial familiars," Juugo suggested.

Shikamaru nodded slowly, "All right," He said, accepting the fact that he was clearly outvoted here.

He'd wanted the plan that had the best chance of working _and _keeping people alive, this one could work and inflict serious casualties on the enemy but these volunteers-among them his own wife-were probably going to die.

He needed to think of a way for Temari to avoid going . . .

And yet how could he ask her to do that? How could he expect that of any of them? This was a war, people were going to die.

If not in this battle than another, if not Temari and Kyoko then someone else would be leading the aerial assault, someone less skilled.

Shikamaru looked at Sumiko. He wondered if the girl realized how serious her little picture was.

And he wondered if Temari realized how . . . abnormal it was that their daughter was drawing pictures of burning ships. Maybe they were bad parents . . .

He wanted to be right beside Temari but that wasn't his place, he wasn't a fire element user and he couldn't fly or glide.

This would be her fight, the land invasion would be his.

"All right," Shikamaru said, "my original plan was to drop the ninja off somewhere a few miles from the city so that they wouldn't be detected by the sensors on the ships, but if this task force is going to be pounding the enemy anyway maybe we should try an attack from two directions, our fastest lightest ships go wide around the enemy fleet and let some of our ninja out onto the waters as close to land as they can, those ninja will attack the garrison."

"Afterwards those ships will probably have to make a run for it, they're sure to be sensed out and hunted by the enemy." Ito said.

"But our Super Destroyers have a range that exceeds a sensor," Juugo said helpfully, "So the big ships won't have to worry."

"And the smaller ships can fire at a range that's safe for them, those that can't fire out of the range of sensor ninja can set up a diversionary line just barely out of the range of the sensors on the left and right flanks," Shikamaru said, "That way if any ship tries to head for the fleet its sensors will try to pursue our fleet in entirely the wrong direction, those ships just fall back once they're being pursued and our main ballistae can keep firing while a few fast transports carrying the rest of our ninja force goes down the middle, they won't even need to expel chakra running over the water since the enemy fleet at the center should be completely defeated before they move."

He smiled weakly, the plan was really coming together.

The people launching the fire attack were still up a creek without a paddle-his _wife_ was still in one of the most dangerous positions of the battle-but everything else was shaping up nicely. This could be one of the most bloodless-for their side-battles of the war and it'd be an immense morale boost for the samurai and infantry when they arrived around noon the next morning to know that their first major target, the Land of Waves had been secured by a small task force.

It could work . . .

It _would _work.

Shikamaru watched Temari, willing her to be careful.

And he watched Sumiko, wondering what else the child might think of . . .

It was ludicrous to think Sumiko might actually be able to plan strategy, really all she'd done here was draw a picture of something she wanted-the bad guys losing-and Temari had drawn her own conclusions from it . . . right?

Shikamaru frowned as everyone talked about the plan, the two Samurai Taisho were still wary of the idea but now at least they weren't calling it insane.

* * *

Nao and Yomiko were with Kyoko after the battle, so when Shikamaru-sensei approached her to let Kyoko know that Temari was hoping she'd volunteer for a dangerous mission Yomiko had volunteered before the older girl could even say a word.

Nao couldn't let Yomiko one up him so naturally he too said "I'll go" and Shikamaru-sensei had given him a very hard look.

"I know you were only asking me, Shikamaru-sama, but since these two went ahead and volunteered it'd be pretty cowardly of me to say 'no' now so I too volunteer." Kyoko said in mock resignation.

Shikamaru smiled slightly, but he kept his eyes on Nao, it was as if he were thinking hard, calculating something. It seemed like the older man might not let him go, but finally Shikamaru-sensei nodded and put a hand on both Nao and Yomiko's shoulders and said "You two . . . Kyoko-san . . . watch yourselves. I . . . this mission is incredibly dangerous."

"That's the nature of war," Shikamaru continued, "facing danger. Just like the nature of command is giving orders you know may kill those you love . . . you're Jounin now so that's something you'll be experiencing firsthand sooner or later."

Shikamaru hesitated, then said "The third exam is now the responsibility of all there of you, any of you who survive this mission will head for the rendezvous point we discussed earlier."

"What about my mission?" Hitomi asked, coming from around the corner. "My job of leading Haruno-senpai and Hyuga-senpai wont be necessary if the ninja are hitting the enemy's city head on."

"That's true." Shikamaru said and Nao frowned.

Hitomi clasped her hands behind her back and her black lenses looked towards Shikamaru-sensei as if she were looking him in the eye.

"I volunteer for this mission, Senpai." Hitomi said firmly.

Shikamaru nodded, "I had a feeling you would. Once it's complete rendezvous with Sakura if you can, she will still need you. Once this operation is over all of you are to carry on with the plans we outlined before. None of you are permitted to die, is that clear? Hijiri, a word . . ."

Shikamaru-sensei and Hitomi walked off, Nao smirked at Yomiko and Kyoko, "Well then, a secret mission."

"I'd better ask cousin Konohamaru if he's going, he's a fire element user after all," Yomiko said but Kyoko shook her head.

"What part of "secret mission" are you having trouble with?" Kyoko asked, "I can't believe you two got me into this."

"If you didn't want to go-"

"Of course I wanted to go it's just easier to have someone to blame, Nao!" Kyoko groaned and leaned over the rail of the ship as if she'd be sick, "I don't even know what the mission is . . . but already it's making my stomach churn."

"Maybe they just want us to eat the enemy's ice cream supply." Yomiko suggested, clearly joking.

"Yeah," Nao added helpfully, "the Emperor would surrender on the day if he learned we ate their entire store of chocolate."

"I prefer strawberry." Kyoko commented.

"Well obviously we'd eat that too, just to add insult to injury." Yomiko assured her friend.

"Hmm . . . sounds like an awesome mission then."

"The best." Nao said.

"And afterwards, a hot springs." Yomiko nodded.

"Well now we just _have _to survive," Kyoko laughed, and maybe because they were so tired anything seemed funny, or maybe just because laughter is contagious, Nao and Yomiko joined her and the three shared a short but welcome laugh.

They were all old enough to know there wouldn't be many more of those in the near future.

* * *

Shikamaru put his hands into his pockets as he walked, "Can I trust you, Hijiri?"

"To do what?" Hitomi asked evenly.

"This mission you've signed yourself up for is a very dangerous one. You'll be over enemy lines with no support besides your fellow task force members, you will be more or less taking on the entire enemy fleet guarding Waves by yourselves."

"Are you trying to talk me out of going or something?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"Sasuke is going." Shikamaru said.

"All the more reason I should too, until Naruto-sensei gets back Sasuke-sama is my commander." Hitomi shrugged.

"Hijiri can I trust you?" Shikamaru asked again.

Hitomi folded her arms, and then said "As much as I can trust you, Nara-sama. I've told you things I wouldn't say to someone I don't trust at least a bit, so of course you can trust me."

"At least a bit?" Shikamaru smirked.

Hitomi shrugged, "I'm not a traitor."

"I know . . . but I needed a personal favor."

"What's that?"

Shikamaru took a deep breath and said "Temari and Kyoko will be gliding over the enemy fleet so that fire users can set it ablaze-"

"Why didn't we think of that sooner?" Hitomi mused, amazed at the simplicity and beauty of the plan.

"Because it's incredibly dangerous and borderline suicidal," Shikamaru said, "Anyway Temari and Kyoko on their normal battle fans can carry _a _passenger, if at all possible I want to try to see if we can rig together something capable of carrying two, but regardless if you're willing I want _you _to go with my wife."

"Done." Hitomi shrugged.

"That's it?" Shikamaru blinked, "That's all?"

"I said you could trust me." Hitomi shrugged. "Seems a lot of people expect me to protect their loved ones in this war . . . I'm not a legend like you or Sasuke-sama, but when I can protect people I will."

Shikamaru smiled weakly at her, and she recognized that the smile's weakness wasn't due to lack of emotion but rather lack of energy. "Thank you," he said, "I feel worthless even asking because I know she can take care of herself . . . it's just . . . well she . . ."

Hitomi smiled her own weak smile, "Means a lot to you?"

Shikamaru met her gaze and shrugged helplessly, "Yeah. She means a lot to me."

* * *

"She means a lot to me. I mean we aren't married or anything-she just won't do it-but I've been in love with her since the moment I met her, there was just . . . _something _about her, y'know?" Kaoru explained as he led her to the river where there were dozens of men and women handling nets. Hitomi was a little surprised, she'd seen fields for growing . . . whatever, and she supposed it made sense that a village in the Land of Waterfalls would be near water and nobody ever said a village had to do just one thing.

Kaoru's fishermen neighbors were pretty muscular . . . that was what was so surprising. When she pictured fishermen she pictured elderly fellows sitting on a peer with rod and reel talking about bygone days, not bronzed well muscled shirtless men casting nets. She was so distracted she barely managed to answer Kaoru's statement with a "Uh-huh."

"There she is!" Kaoru said, and Hitomi tore her gaze from the fishermen and followed Kaoru, taking in the detail of this woman who was apparently Keika.

If she were pregnant she couldn't have been that far along, her stomach had just the slightest bump. Her hair was long and multicolored. It'd been dyed blue at some point but her natural black was starting to reassert itself.

And she was beautiful, she made Hitomi feel homely. No wonder Kaoru hadn't tried to make a move on Hitomi, going from someone like Keika to someone like her would be like trading a fine bottle of quality sake for muddy water.

Keika's eyes were closed as if she were meditating but she did tilt her head in their direction when they approached. Keika's face was expressionless when they reached her, but she did speak.

"Hello, Kaoru."

"Kei-chan-uh, Keika . . . it's good to see you. Um . . . how have you uh . . . been?"

Keika let out an exasperated sigh, "Yes, Kaoru, I am pregnant. Yes, it is your fault. Now get yourself gone; I'm observing nature."

Hitomi tilted her head to the side, there was something familiar and even comforting about Keika's slight accent.

Where had she heard it before?

Never mind, Kaoru said "Uh, I guess we should go. It's not good to bother her when she doesn't want to be bothered."

"Um . . . okay," Hitomi said.

"I said get _yourself _gone, Kaoru. She can stay."

"What?" Kaoru sounded confused.

"Leave the girl." Keika clarified, "I've commandeered your home, make a place for her there. Be quick and maybe I'll let yourself stay as well."

Kaoru laughed weakly, "I guess she likes you then . . . uh . . . I guess I'll go. Don't worry if she seems aggressive, she's really very nice."

"Why are you still here?" Keika demanded sharply.

Kaoru smirked and rolled his eyes, "She's all bark, uh . . . I'll see you two later . . ."

It was obvious he was more interested in Keika's pregnancy than Keika herself appeared to be, but he did go; leaving Hitomi alone with the strange woman.

"Hop up here, sit with me, we've got a lot to talk about." Keika said.

"Um . . . okay . . . like what?" Hitomi asked.

"Relax." Keika said quietly, "You're safe here. These are good people, they won't hurt you. Kaoru's not as simple as he pretends to be, but he won't hurt you either."

"Okay . . . what about you?"

"I don't think I _can _hurt you." Keika said.

"Were you . . . are you . . . y'know . . ." Hitomi hesitated.

"A ninja? No." Keika said. "I'm not the type. Much rather make love than war . . . given my current state that probably sounded too literal." The woman smiled.

Hitomi watched the world around them, Keika's rock was actually a pretty good place for observing nature, as she'd said, but Hitomi's attention was more drawn to the fishermen.

There were both men and women, but she mostly paid attention to the men. They looked really strong . . .

Keika laughed softly, "Observing nature?"

"What? Uh . . . yeah." Hitomi lied.

"I like this village. Kaoru's one reason, the river's the other." Keika said.

Hitomi noticed the other woman's eyes were still closed, so she asked "How do you observe nature without opening your eyes?"

"Don't be facetious." Keika scolded.

"Um . . . sorry?" Hitomi offered.

"You should really get used to not using your eyes so much. You'll rely on them for everything and that's _bad_."

"Too late," Hitomi laughed, "I already do. My eyes are . . . pretty uh-"

"They'll kill you." Keika said sternly.

"How so?" Hitomi wondered.

"Do you really not know?" Keika seemed surprised, "Did no one tell you?"

"Tell me _what_?" Hitomi asked, feeling concerned.

Keika opened her eyes. "Tell you _anything_ about who you are and where you came from, little cousin. Don't you know?"

Hitomi blinked, Keika's eyes were . . .

They were completely red, where most eyes were white Keika's were red, her iris was a mildly darker shade of red that most people didn't even see or distinguish from the rest of the eye, leaving the impression that there was no iris.

Her pupil was sort of a swirling whirlpool in the center of her eye. It looked as if it were spinning or swirling but it was probably a trick of the light or something that made them look like swirling black whirlpools surrounded by a red sea. Hitomi knew from personal experience that her eyes didn't actually spin.

Hitomi knew from personal experience because Keika's eyes . . . were just like her eyes.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Whew, this was a bit of a big one, and it covered a lot. It also covered Keika's bloodline, and I feel like I should comment on that.

Hopefully now you all see that I was indeed going somewherewith Hitomi's flashbacks, they weren't just thrown in so I could fawn over the character or to interrupt the flow of the story, which is what I always worried it'd seem like to some readers.

The original purpose of the Kaoru/Keika flashbacks was to explain where the heck Saeki came from-is she the child Keika is carrying or did Kaoru also sleep with Hitomi for some reason?-how Hitomi chose to get back into the war after giving up, and to point her in the direction of her clan.

Originally Keika would drop hints and imply things until finally, in the final flashback, she'd reveal her eyes to Hitomi and tell her where to go for answers, resulting in Hitomi seeking those answers out in the story's fourth and final arc.

But that didn't sit well with me and didn't make sense for a few reasons; one of them being I didn't want to write up a whole clan of characters who'd only be around for a few chapters so now instead of revealing them in her final appearance and telling Hitomi where to go Keika reveals her eyes right away and will tell Hitomi pretty much everything she would have learned from seeking out the clan in the fourth scroll, this saves me from having to create the clan at all and lets readers know the secrets sooner. Since Keika was more or less going to try to play mentor to Hitomi anyway it isn't like this requires I completely rethink her character either, and it makes Hitomi's willingness to listen to anything the woman says more believable so I think it works out well.

Anyway hope you all enjoyed this chapter, remember to review and all that.


	40. Lights in the Night

**Chapter Thirty Eight**

It was getting dark, Ryu stood in the streets of Waves looking at the street lamps, watching for the moment they came on.

Everyone was separated into their positions, the experiments were caged but ready to be freed at a moment's notice and their ninja handlers would take it in shifts to sleep and guard.

The soldiers were sleeping in their armor-uncomfortable, Ryu imagined-because the enemy's attack should come in the morning.

The Five weren't much experienced with naval matters and didn't know how long it would take the enemy fleet to arrive, but since the taskforce had been just a day and a half out Okatsu-sama had guessed that it would likely be in the morning or at noon.

Kurai and Shiroi had returned to the palace but would return to their secondary Waves avatars when the fighting started. Yukio and Kasumi were with Okatsu. Given what they had to work with the city couldn't be better defended.

It'd been Yukio who'd said that the enemy might attack in the night, "Just because it's unlikely that the fleet will come doesn't mean that ninja from the Lightning front won't make it here meaning to secure the landing." Yukio had said.

Okatsu had therefore ordered patrols into the woods surrounding the city.

Once the sun set the guard in the ports could be relaxed, after all the sensors in the fleet would detect any ships trying to sneak in overnight and it wasn't as if the ballistae could be of much use in the dark.

Unless of course Kasumi were in control of all of them, she could see well in the dark, being a Hattori.

Ryu leaned against the wall of a building and lit a cigarette. He watched the people go by and wondered if the common folk realized what was about to happen. War was about to ruin this city. If it went well it wouldn't get to the streets but it wasn't likely to go well.

Wars never really did, at least not in Ryu's opinion. Then again, being a medic he saw things a bit differently than most soldiers.

* * *

Karin leaned over the railing of the _Amagiri_ and watched the waves roll under the ship.

"Sasuke-kun is going to summon a few birds, Temari and some other Suna chick are going to use gliders . . . looks like five two-man teams." She said.

"Will that be enough?" Juugo wondered.

"Light up five ships at a time? It should be fine, how many ships do you suppose the enemy has?" Karin asked.

"Doesn't matter, the ships aren't our problem, the land forces are." Suigetsu said.

"But Sasuke-kun . . ." Karin sighed.

"He'll survive." Suigetsu said.

Karin watched the waves roll, "It's almost time."

"It's not like we'll get there right as it gets dark." Juugo pointed out.

"No, I know that," Karin said, "I wasn't talking about the battle. That'll go down a little after midnight."

"There shouldn't be much of a moon," Suigetsu added in an optimistic tone.

"What I mean is it's almost time for this war to end." Karin said.

"Oh . . ." Juugo said.

Karin smiled, "It's all a waiting game, isn't it? We wait and see if we win this war, then we wait until it's time to fight the next."

"Maybe there won't be another war." Juugo said optimistically, "Maybe we'll win this one."

"Even if we do there's going to be another war," Suigetsu said, "it's human nature. There always has to be a war being fought."

"Why?" Juugo asked.

"I dunno. Karin, answer him." Suigetsu said, waving dismissively.

"I don't know." Karin shrugged, "But it's true. Mankind needs to fight wars, they enjoy it in a way, I think. I mean look at us, we're going to war and Suigetsu is anticipating having a good time."

"Oh yes." Suigetsu said with a wolfish grin. Karin wasn't entirely sure why women found him attractive, whenever he smiled he showed off those freaky deformed teeth . . .

"But," Juugo said, "this war makes sense because the enemy is evil. We have to fight for the freedom of the people, don't we?"

"Why?" Karin giggled, "People don't need freedom. Give them freedom and they'll make asses of themselves. Forget freedom Juugo, people need strong leadership and _flexibility_. That's how things should be run, the leadership needs to be strong if it's going to bother existing at all. But not everyone's going to be satisfied with that and they'll start something, and so wars are fought. It's unavoidable really."

"So freedom doesn't matter to you?" Juugo asked.

"Freedom's a silly concept," Karin scoffed, "the weak are never free, they're slaves to the strong. The strong, like you and me, are slaves to the stronger still like Suigetsu now and Sasuke before."

"But Suigetsu wouldn't be where he is without us, and people like us." Juugo reasoned.

"Doesn't make him any less in charge. Using other people is what leaders _do_." Karin shrugged.

"So what if there were no leaders?" Suigetsu put forward, "Without folks like me to run things everyone would be left to their own devices, freedom if you will. Many will act appropriately, others will quickly resort to a might makes right philosophy, taking whatever they want provided they're strong enough to take it . . . the pedophiles will run rampant."

"It's straight to pedophilia with you, isn't it? That's like the top service you think you provide as Mizukage?" Karin demanded.

"I like to think I make the world a safer place for children everywhere by ruling with an iron fist . . . I'm a humanitarian, Karin-chan." Suigetsu said with a smirk, "If I weren't here to protect the youth of the Lands of Water who knows what could happen?"

"Indeed, everyone sings your praises, now shut up." Karin said, cracking her knuckles as it grew darker, "You see Juugo, even a fool can be an effective leader. I think few would argue that Suigetsu is a fool, but he's been an effective leader of his land. It doesn't matter _who _leads, someone's always going to convince people to let them do it."

"So . . . unless there's a perfect leader there's always going to be war." Juugo reasoned.

Karin sighed, "Sure . . . whatever. I guess if there were a perfect leader that everyone could follow there wouldn't be war. But that man isn't the Emperor, and he isn't anyone I know, so we can't support him. So of course when the time comes there's going to be another war . . . and it'll probably be us who starts it."

"And wins." Suigetsu added.

"Right, hopefully." Karin shrugged. "Honestly if Uzumaki Naruto could just die in this war that'd be extremely helpful."

"Steady on, woman." Suigetsu said, looking around, "Sasuke seems to like him you know."

"Besides, isn't he our friend?" Juugo asked.

"For this war." Karin said. "We're not Leaf Shinobi. As long as he lives he's a threat to everyone else . . . I don't wish him ill will, but if it's ever between him and me? Heck, I'd rather see the both of _you _die than have to die myself."

She smiled brightly, "Luckily we're all on the same team for this war _and _the next. I mean if we survive this one." Karin said.

Juugo frowned, and said "Well . . . shouldn't we get a move on?"

Suigetsu laughed, it was finally completely dark aside from the lamps on the ships.

"Too right, my friend. Lets go to war . . . once we hit that continent I don't know that we'll even stop, if everything goes well we'll blast through every road block on our way to Konohagakure and I'll behead the big snake himself."

"Making you a hero forever?" Karin rolled her eyes and stepped away from the rail.

"Duh. Why does my chief strategist need things explained?" Suigetsu laughed and led the way for Karin and Juugo to follow.

They were still a couple hours from the fun, but soon enough they'd be in the thick of the fight.

* * *

Yomiko slapped the nervous looking Kyoko on the shoulder," Going to be some fun, eh?"

"I guess." Kyoko mumbled.

Yomiko looked at the task force assembled. Hijiri Hitomi and Sensei's wife Temari-san were going to be together on Temari's glider. Sensei had wanted to try to jury-rig a three man glider so that there would be greater support for Temari and Kyoko if they were hit, but the two women agreed that a smaller glider would be less of a target and a single passenger would be adequate.

"If I lose her I'll just come back for another," Temari had said, "and if she loses me . . . well, better hope you're not too high up, huh?"

Hitomi-san had just sort of smiled, but said nothing.

"All right," Konohamaru said, "Command for this mission is in Uchiha Sasuke's hands . . . so what's the word, Sasuke-senpai?"

Sasuke scoffed, "Everyone's in their groups, right? We're going to do this in waves, the first wave will be made up of our gliders, and three teams riding on summoned owls. The owls have better night vision than the hawks I've summoned, once the first fires are set the five hawk teams will launch."

"We have no established targets," Temari added, "Just set a fire to whatever you see, and keep high so you're harder to spot."

"Once we light up a ship we move on and get away from there," Sasuke said, "we don't want to be there when the ballistae start raining down."

"Or shooting out, whatever." Konohamaru said.

Yomiko would be going in with Kyoko, Naomasa and cousin Konohamaru would be riding on one of the owls along with a sensor ninja-to speed things along-Temari and Hitomi were together.

It was going to be one crazy night. Everyone had tried to get as much sleep as they could in the day but it was rough, not everyone was used to sleeping on ships had kept at least Yomiko awake.

"All right," Sasuke said, "Let's do this, people."

There was a cheer through the group of ninja and one of the hawks, a massive one even let out a screech.

With singular purpose the first wave leapt onto the backs of their owls, or in Yomiko's case, grabbed onto their gliding companion.

And they were off.

Into the blackness of night, not knowing where the water was Yomiko gulped.

This was a lot scarier than she'd thought.

They moved fast, Yomiko held onto Kyoko and held her breath.

The battle fan carried them through the night, they stayed in tight formation until Yomiko saw what appeared to be the enemy vessels.

They were just dark shapes on the horizon, slightly betrayed by the lights of the city, Yomiko saw the first ball of flame streak out towards an enemy ship.

That looked like it came from cousin Konohamaru, which made sense since he was riding with a sensor. The fire lit up the ship and betrayed the location of another nearby, another fireball was blown on the second ship.

The attack was on.

Yomiko was careful not to set flame to Kyoko's fan, and not to lose her grip on Kyoko as she breathed her own flames.

She saw Naomasa's fire summoning Jutsu, a fiery bird, a phoenix skimmed the water's surface, too low to betray the location of the soaring owl, as it flew into the hull of a metal ship which it abandoned and then emerged to slam headlong into another wooden vessel.

The metal war ships were proving the trickier targets, not all of them could burn but large blasts of fire made sure to betray their location all the same.

And then Yomiko saw it, the massive bolt that shot from the sky and slammed into the water just before the ship she'd lit on fire.

It sank under the water with a massive splash, Yomiko realized it probably slammed into the ship beneath the waterline, a mortal wound though no doubt an accidental one.

The ship rocked violently and another two ballista bolts struck it.

It had been just over a minute and already the first enemy ship was down.

The second wave had launched, some ninja were dropping explosives, but the order of the day was mostly just lighting up the enemy.

The heat from the fires made the cold night warm, and it made the darkness into an eerie twilight.

Arrows were being fired now, but not many of them even came close. Yomiko knew that was just because there weren't many yet, once the enemy fully rallied and started firing into the air the sheer mass of enemy fire would be hard to avoid.

She wondered if they'd shoot each other on accident. She wondered if that were part of the plan.

She blew another ball of flame, hitting another ship. More ballista bolts rained down, some of them turned out to have explosive tags on them as well.

A warning siren sounded from the city, but there was nothing the men in the coastal battlements could do to stop them, their bows wouldn't reach far enough and they couldn't see them anyway.

All they knew was that they were under attack.

* * *

The prisoner shook with fury as the alarm siren wailed.

People were running for their homes or for shelters, soldiers were being roused from their sleep, the ninja were on guard.

Battle . . .

He slammed against the bars of his cage, "Let me out!" He roared.

His ninja handler laughed, "Soon enough, hold your horses."

The prisoner was shaking with anticipation.

Soon . . . soon he'd be free, he could fight. He didn't know why, but he felt like fighting would help him to find her . . . find Hijiri Hitomi . . . find answers.

* * *

Ryu rushed along with the others to the battlements, he scanned for any sings of an invading ship or of ninja running along the water's surface.

Suddenly Yukio was by his side, it surprised him.

His comrade slapped his shoulder and said, "Just like old times, eh? Too bad Kyoko isn't here."

"You sure she isn't?" Ryu asked.

Yukio smirked, "Maybe . . . ah well. If we catch her we'll just teach her the right way, right?"

"Sure . . ." Ryu said, drawing the kunai that Daisuke had given him.

The _right _way . . . the _right _thing . . .

He closed his eyes for a moment to gather himself, then looked back out at the waters, prepared to defend the country, not the emperor. Surely that was the right thing.

* * *

The plan was going perfectly, the enemy fleet was being massacred, and Gaara had reported that only two of the fliers had gone down since the attack began.

Or at least two that he had seen, he could only see through two sand eyes at a time, he was looking in on everyone in a cycle.

Of the fliers that had been downed one had landed roughly on an enemy ship and both the injured hawk and its three passengers had been beset by enemies. Though the four had fought tooth and nail, talon and beak for their lives Gaara reported that they had been killed before any help could be sent to them.

_The first heroes of the battle, _Shikamaru thought glumly.

The second flier to go down had done so over water, the owl was lost but the riders had survived and were running for the oncoming troop transports.

The fast ships were sailing through the breach in the enemy's right flank, rather than the breach in their center. The center seemed too obvious, and offered too easy a target for the enemy ships to vent their anger on, if sensors noticed the transports the enemy could converge from the left and right and trap the few ninja baring ships.

Shikamaru didn't want that.

The ships sped along as fast as they could, the fires and the ballista turrets from the super destroyers cleared their path for them.

Shikamaru watched as the shoreline drew closer.

How many years ago had it been that Naruto and his team completed their first major mission on what had then been called the Great Naruto Bridge?

How many years since they were a pack of bright eyed young ninja largely ignorant of just how vicious the wars of the world could be?

No time for reminiscing, he supposed. Konoha's legendary genius watched the shore come closer, he saw two of the owls break off from setting fire to the now seriously depleted enemy fleet-most of the ships too busy trying to put out the fires to fight back though not nearly half of them had been sunk yet.

The two owls and their passengers instead hit the battlements, one of them went down under arrow fire almost immediately, its riders falling from far too high to survive.

The second however strafed the wall from one tower to another, a phoenix set ablaze one of the ports-the ninja wouldn't need it-and Shikamaru realized that bird was being ridden by Konohamaru and Naomasa.

Surely they'd seen the other bird go down, they had to realize how suicidal their attack was, how hopeless it was.

Shikamaru swore, the owl was well lit by the fires its riders had lit, the nearest bowmen were leaping from the wall into the water-or worse-to get away from the flames but other archers would see the bird and take it out.

"Damned fools," Shikamaru heard Ino growl.

"Never mind them, they're trying to cover us so lets not waste the time they've bought us. Ready?" He asked his old team.

Ino and Chouji both nodded. The ship was close enough to the shore, Shikamaru shouted for the charge and all the ninja aboard leapt off, running over the surface of the water.

Arrows came for them but with the nearest tower and wall aflame the remaining bowmen were in a poor position and could barely see the ninja anyway, it was a simple job to avoid the arrows.

The ninja of Konoha, Suna, and Kiri made their landing.

The land invasion had begun.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Sorry this took so long, I had some trouble of a medical sort and wasn't able to really write. But it's all sorted out; I won't die (well . . . you know, someday I will, everyone does, but not right now) and I'm back to write further in the adventure of everyone's favorite Legendary Laze. I'll try to step up writing these chapters to make up for the time I missed. As for some of the questions raised, Kiba and the gang will be shown more once the fight for Waves is over, we'll also see more of Tomoko then. The fleet's biggest ships are their new Super Destroyers in part because I cut some things from the story at first they were just the newest most technologically advanced ships, the biggest in the Water fleet but not the biggest in the seas. Originally the Sound Fleet had a massive dreadnought as their flagship and Lightning had several copies of an upgraded version of their heavy command ship from New Blood, all of which would clash in a large naval battle prior to the actual land invasion of Waves. The S-Destroyers were the only super ship that survived the cut mostly because I'd already mentioned them before I realized I needed to cut down the naval combat and hurry up and get to the invasion and Naruto's reappearance and figured I'd let it slide since letting Water have the edge in naval combat didn't bother me terribly. I won't outright say that the Sound flagship, or the Lightning heavy battleships don't exist anymore, I may use them later.


	41. A Wild Night

**Chapter Thirty Nine**

It was surprisingly warm.

Maybe it was the fires on the ships or being so close to a woman who was breathing gouts of flame like a she-dragon. Whatever the reason Temari found a once chilly night becoming almost comfortably warm.

Almost comfortably; after all it was hard to feel comfortable when you were speeding hundreds of feet in the air above a fleet of war ships with sensor-nin trying to direct bowmen at you, and giant ballista bolts slamming into the ocean, or into the ships right beneath you.

A couple of times Temari had to abort an attack because a ship had already caught flame, or because one of their own fleet's bolts would've come too close.

She had to avoid the really strong fires because they made her too visible; but there were fewer ships now, the fleet was being thrashed.

Temari smirked at Hitomi and shouted to be heard over the roar of the wind, "You got a better view?"

"Yes," Hitomi shouted, "The fleet's thinning, some of their smaller ships are trying to run."

"Can't let 'em go," Temari said, "They might regroup and come around after the fleet. How many are there?"

"I see five ships," Hitomi said, "I think everyone else has the main fleet under control. If we go after these five we should be able to handle it."

Temari nodded and Hijiri Hitomi placed her hand over Temari's shoulder, pointing and directing Temari on where to go to find the fleeing ships. With her other hand she held onto the rope that that connected to both their belts, it left Hitomi's hands free to form seals when she needed them without having to worry about falling to her death or wasting chakra clinging to the fan with her feet.

Temari put as much speed into her fan as she could. There was a danger that if she went too low she wouldn't have sufficient lift to rise again. She was gliding, not really flying. She could lift the fan herself, but not enough to escape a dedicated line of bowmen if she needed to move fast.

But she fearlessly dove in the direction Hitomi indicated.

The green and blue battle fan dove down and in the dim moonlight Temari saw the first battle ship.

Hitomi gripped her shoulders and stood up. If the wind weren't roaring past them Temari might have heard the younger woman inhale sharply, and then breathe a gout of flame over her shoulder as they passed the ship.

Bowmen fired towards them, they'd been ready for the chance of an attack but how badly they missed indicated to Temari that they had no ninja sensors on that ship.

Made sense, it was a small ship. All five of the vessels probably were.

The fire sufficiently started they moved to the next target, Temari didn't even notice when suddenly the light from the fire Hitomi had just lit was suddenly extinguished.

"This is insane," Hitomi shouted, "There was no water at all until now!"

Temari laughed, "Are you kidding? This is an _ocean_, woman!"

"I mean no water Jut-" Hitomi began then spun around and shot a flame out towards . . . what?

Temari looked over her shoulder and saw it illuminated by Hitomi's Fireball Jutsu; the ship she'd set aflame was partially extinguished and the wave that had done it was following them.

"Higher!" Hitomi suggested and inhaled for another fireball.

Temari scoffed, "Screw that."

"It's a Jutsu!" Hitomi exclaimed. The girl must really think she was dense.

Temari just laughed maniacally, partially to convince herself that there was little to no danger and partially just to screw with Hitomi for daring to even imagine she didn't understand that a pursuing wave wasn't exactly _normal _or anything.

She saw the silhouette of another ship and sped towards it, gliding right over the deck so low she could slap the hat off any soldier on the deck.

The wave slammed into the ship, capsizing it and Temari let her insane laughter grow louder.

Idiot. Of course there'd be a few ninja with water Jutsu-though the spotters just needed to show the fleet's position and move on, the destroyers would take care of the rest.

And it'd been working, any water types on the ships had tried to combat the fires but it hadn't done much.

Still, Temari had to admit she hadn't seen something of this magnitude, not that it mattered.

"Going too fast for you?" Temari asked lightly, still a little peeved about the younger woman's implication about her own intellect.

But Hitomi seemed to have figured out what she wanted, and pointed her towards the nearest ship.

Temari gave the fan all the speed she could and did the same thing again, flying low over the ship.

But the wave stopped before hitting the ship.

Had the shinobi got wise or were they just out of range?

They passed over and Hitomi screamed, "Higher!"

Temari realized exactly what Hitomi meant right as the word registered, and she realized she'd been overconfident. She pulled up on the fan, she felt Hitomi squeeze her waist, holding on for dear life as the wave crashed up from the other side of the ship and reached for them like the hand of a water god.

Temari couldn't fly straight up and she couldn't climb too fast for too long.

And then suddenly her load was lightened, she felt Hitomi let go of her. Temari looked into the pitch black, had she lost her passenger? Was the rope cut?

Temari glanced over her shoulder into the dark of night, the one thing she could easily see in the darkness was that Hitomi wasn't with her . . .

* * *

Shikamaru ran through the dirt streets near the docks along with his old team. A spear flew towards Ino who easily dodged it and leapt onto a lamp post, clinging to it with chakra and knocking the light out with a kunai in one hand, dispatching her attack with a trio of shuriken from the other.

A samurai rushed at Shikamaru, they crossed blades for a moment before Chouji's fist slammed the man into-make that _through _a nearby wall.

The ninja were in the streets of Waves, knocking out lamps where they could and continuing their attack in darkness which limited the enemy soldiers' effectiveness.

Not ninja though.

Shikamaru spotted a pair of Sound shinobi in the distance, they laughed and the veteran ninja smirked at them.

There was a scream and something attacked Ino as she leapt from the lamp post.

Shikamaru turned and saw that what had her was a . . . monster?

It had wings instead of arms, and fangs too grotesquely large to serve any real eating function, they were probably just for killing prey.

It was otherwise skin and bones, looking almost skeletal though it did have reptilian talons with which it was holding onto Ino by the flak jacket.

The woman used a mind Jutsu and the monster staggered in flight, but didn't release her.

Shikamaru's attention fell back to the ground when suddenly a bear came for them.

Well, not a bear, it was a man but he was covered in hair and had claws like a bear's and he roared.

It was a testament to the discipline of the team and the trust between Chouji and Shikamaru when Chouji intercepted the bear-man instead of trying to help his wife, he knew Shikamaru was already taking care of that.

Shikamaru used his shadow tentacles, they shot up and tore the bird-man's legs away from Ino who fell and grabbed the lamp post.

It seemed like their first major obstacle had been crossed but Shikamaru was knocked off his feet-and had the air knocked out of him as well-when Chouji was thrown into him by the bear-man.

The flying monster dove screaming at Ino again, she swung around on the post and kicked the creature hard in the skeletal chest with both legs, they flew through the air and landed hard on the ground.

The sound of cracking ribs was audible to Shikamaru, Ino threw some kunai at the bear-man as he closed in on the two downed members of her team.

She'd never looked more heroic to Shikamaru but he also wasn't about to make her do all the work, _or _trust those two ninja not to get into the fight themselves.

Or the soldiers . . .

Chouji was up again and he threw himself at bear-man, using the two kunai Ino had thrown into the monster's back to hold him and push him backwards, tearing the blades free the massive man raised his fists and slammed them down on either side of the monster's head, one taking an ear before slamming into the shoulder, and the other hitting so hard that the bear-like arm which had been raised for a swipe collapsed and fell to the side, still attached to its owner but totally useless.

Shikamaru saw the enemy ninja coming for him, he drew his chakra knives and sprang forward.

The ninja had a chakra sword, and it buzzed with wind chakra, a formidable combination.

Shikamaru met the man strike for strike as Chouji threw the still living and very angry bear-man at the second ninja.

Another two teams had arrived, one for each side, the Sound Shinobi were reinforced by a Chuunin trio.

The allied team on the other hand was made up of the Kazekage and his honor guard.

Suigetsu's massive sword sliced through one of the Chuunin as he came down and also cleaved the bear-man in two. Juugo roared in fury that caught the attention of Shikamaru's foe.

Despite the dim fire light Shikamaru could see the hesitation on the other man's face. Fight or flee?

The enemy made his decision slightly too late. While the decision for him had been fight or flight for Shikamaru it had been before or after.

Before, or after the man turned his back and tried to run.

Shikamaru chose after, it exposed him to less risk even if it were somewhat cowardly. Shikamaru wasn't supposed to be a hero, he was a ninja, and a damned good one at that, his survival thus far was a testament to that.

As the enemy shinobi turned to try to run Shikamaru lunged with one of his blades and used it as a hook, letting the man skewer his own neck.

Predictably there was an attempt at substitution but Shikamaru's other blade had stopped the man from making the switch, slamming into the dirt road with a tag attached to induce a shadow paralysis, the very tag Shikamaru always kept attached to his blades.

The enemy, likely a Jounin, was dead and Ino's foe was taken down quickly as well.

The carnage was horrific, soldiers were rushing at them but the fight with the remaining two Chuunin would be over before they soldiers got into it.

Shikamaru grabbed his dead foe's sword. He wasn't going to keep it, he couldn't use it effectively, instead he threw it to Karin who'd made a motion for it though what she planned to do with it Shikamaru didn't much care.

He sent his shadow for one of the Chuunin like a flurry of black tentacles. He had an odd moment where he realized several things in a single second, and had enough time to decide how he felt about them.

He realized his opponent was a young woman, recognized the embarrassment that was bound to fall on him when Temari found out he'd used his Shadow Sewing Jutsu to grab a young woman with what appeared to be tentacles, he recognized that the woman seemed to be thinking similarly because her expression was a sort of odd "you've got to be kidding" he thought it was kind of amusing and felt horrified at himself both for finding the situation funny and realizing that he could technically spare this woman's life, but he wasn't going to.

The thirteen year old Shikamaru who'd led a team of brash young Genin out to rescue a comrade would've considered the woman's life important, less so than his friends' and comrades but nevertheless important.

Then of course he killed her. Quickly at least, wrapping tentacles around her limbs and her neck, then giving her a quick, violent shake that would certainly snap her neck. Odd moment over, he recognized that he'd have nightmares about the woman's eyes right before they glazed over and wrote it off.

He had lots of nightmares about the war and long ago he'd stopped wondering who they were . . . the people he killed that is. Making eye contact right before the big moment though, still managed to bug him, one of the reasons he'd let the other guy turn his back on him.

He threw her corpse at the crowd of soldiers and saw what Karin had needed the sword for.

The remaining Chuunin whom Juugo was viciously beating was dying but not dead. Karin casually walked over and slammed the sword down on his chest, "Don't play with that thing, Juugo; it's filthy." She said lightly, and Juugo obediently moved on, a dead body holding no appeal to him.

Juugo instead threw himself at the crowd of soldiers, Shikamaru nodded his gratitude to the Mizukage as their two teams parted ways.

Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino took to the rooftops, leaving Suigetsu to slaughter the small crowd of enemy soldiers.

* * *

Naomasa recognized that the time for riding the giant owl was over, the enemy fleet was lit up enough and the ninja had landed.

He nodded to Konohamaru and the older veteran nodded back. Their ride soared above the battlements, and then Konohamaru leapt off.

Nao followed, their sensor comrade did the same.

The owl soared high into the sky and-hopefully-got away.

Nao and his comrades landed on the roof of a battlement, Konohamaru blew a ball of fire down onto the bowmen below and they leapt down as well.

Nao was careful to knock men off the wall into the water, not leave them unconscious on the burning platform.

It was largely set up and knock down, Nao would set up an opponent and if he didn't knock him out Konohamaru or the sensor would knock him down.

The three ninja tore through the group of soldiers on the walls but it was really only a matter of time before a ninja found them.

Nao had stolen a spear-snapping off the head as was his habit-and was using it as a staff when suddenly he felt something stinging his eyes.

There was sand in his eyes.

Konohamaru shoved him, he fell backwards and opened his eyes to see Yomiko's cousin locked in battle with both of Kyoko's old teammates, their sensor comrade abandoning his fight with the soldiers to help.

Ryu struck out with a huge club, which Konohamaru dodged, but the club unfurled into a giant battle fan.

Yukio threw a handful of sand that started to form into shuriken and Ryu swept the fan, letting Yukio's sand shuriken fly along with his own cutting wind chakra.

The sensor wasn't fast enough to get away, two of the sand shuriken slammed into him, spinning him around so that Nao had the misfortune of seeing what the shuriken did in the next instant.

They seemed to sprout four insect legs made of sand. Only instead of walking they just stabbed the man repeatedly, and drove the shuriken deeper into his chest.

That alone would've been enough, but the cutting wind left lacerations on his back that proved too much and he fell in front of Naomasa.

Konohamaru let loose a fire ball that did stop the winds from cutting him and Nao-and the soldiers behind them-but not the sand shuriken, Nao had to spring to his feet and deflect those with his staff.

"Yukio! Ryu!" He shouted, "You don't have to do this! Stand down, we'll-"

Neither gave him verbal answer, instead they charged.

Naomasa met Ryu with his staff, Ryu had thrown his fan over his shoulder into its holster on his back, and was now attacking Nao with a kunai in one hand and a small paper fan in the other.

With wind chakra cutting out from the fan Nao wasn't sure which he'd less like to be hit with.

He raised his staff to deflect attacks, and bit by bit it was hacked up.

He couldn't even look at Konohamaru but it didn't sound like things were going any better for him.

That's when Nao heard the screams of the soldiers still on the walls with them. Most were trying to attack him and Konohamaru while they faced the two Sound ninja, but others were screaming and pointing down the wall.

"Fear not!" Yukio shouted with authority, "Those are servants of your gods!"

Nao couldn't resist, being on the side of the wall that led down to the street he looked over the edge and saw the pair of monstrous beings climbing up towards them.

One looked human enough except that he was half covered in black tattoos and his eyes seemed reptilian and his demeanor was somewhat less than human-like.

The other looked like a giant rat with armored plating covering parts of his body.

Nao shuddered and Ryu nearly got the advantage over him, but he kept on fighting off both archers behind him and Ryu in front of him. He couldn't let Ryu get to a safe distance to use a wind attack on him.

He swallowed hard, this didn't look good.

He had more reason than just his own desire not to kill this time. He'd told himself that if push came to shove if he _really _needed to he'd just kill any opponent he couldn't otherwise subdue, told himself he was ready to do that.

But these two were Kyoko's friends, and Kyoko was his friend . . . if he killed them it'd hurt her.

Or was that just an excuse not to man up and do what had to be done?

Nao thought these things as his body moved rapidly as he could, he blocked attacks from the front and the back and knew he was running out of time.

He had to do it . . . he _had _to . . . those bowmen would forget their spears and draw their bows eventually, or the monsters would reach them . . .

He was a Special Jounin now . . . time to prove that he deserved it.

He gulped, and then swept the staff out.

It wasn't a chakra conductor so it pretty much exploded when he started pumping his chakra into it, but that was what he wanted anyway. It blasted Ryu back, ripping his small paper fan to bits and giving him several splinters, giving Nao the time he needed to quickly about-face and summon another fire familiar to deal with the bowmen, washing over them like a ball of fire then taking shape behind them.

Many of them leapt into the water to avoid burning to death, others took their chances rolling on the ground, some leapt in the wrong direction and hit the street below.

The possessed man with half his body covered in tattoos reached the top and reached for Naomasa's ankle. Nao leapt up, avoiding him and shouted to Konohamaru, but the older man wasn't able to act.

The enemy grabbed Konohamaru's leg with his other hand and yanked hard, the Jounin slipped and struck his head on the floor before being thrown down from the wall.

Nao was beset by Yukio, and Ryu was rapidly recovering. Even if Konohamaru substituted before hitting the ground and came to rejoin the fight he was in trouble.

And if Konohamaru were smart he _wouldn't _rejoin the fight, he'd move on because they were both clearly outmatched.

Nao had no weapon with which to defend himself against Yukio and his sand katanas, with which he came at Nao with a vengeance.

Ryu was backing off too, preparing no doubt to use his battle fan.

Nao swallowed a lump in his throat. This was all about to go really badly . . .

**To Be Continued . . .**


	42. One More Life

**Chapter Forty**

Naomasa staggered forward as a giant monkey threw himself between Naomasa and the tattooed foe, a ball of fire from below and a screech told Nao that Konohamaru was alive, and hadn't given up on him.

But Yukio was closing in and Ryu was preparing to swing his fan.

Then there was a scream, a familiar voice screaming a single word.

"No!"

Kyoko hit the ground between Nao and Yukio hard-too hard. She'd leapt from her fan and slammed into Yukio's middle, knocking him flat. He kicked her away, rolled to his feet and charged for her with his chakra knives but Ryu was there, holding his hand back.

"Wait!" He shouted, "Let's at least offer her a chance to surrender-Yukio, stop, it's Kyoko-chan!"

Kyoko was panting, she had a wild look in her eyes, she stood between Yukio and Nao and Naomasa saw that Yomiko and the battle fan she and Kyoko had ridden on had continued on, landing safely behind Yukio and Ryu's position. Yomiko had drawn her knives and was moving into position.

"Kyoko," Yukio grunted, "It's good to see you . . . I guess I got carried away, you got the drop on me. Jounin now, eh?"

Kyoko didn't say anything at first, she just looked desperate, then she rasped, "Both of you?"

"Kyoko, are you okay?" Ryu asked.

"Surrender, we'll let you join Sound." Yukio said sharply, holding his hand out to keep medic Ryu from inspecting Kyoko.

Nao was well aware that there was still a battle going on but didn't dare move from the proverbial sphere of protection that Kyoko provided.

"**Both **of you?" Kyoko screamed at the top of her lungs, her hand shot to her neck and she screamed again, falling to her knees.

Nao grabbed her, she shoved him away, "Run!" She snapped.

"Are you insane? I'm not leaving-"

"Run!" Kyoko roared, and she rushed for Yukio and Ryu.

"She's not surrendering, Ryu . . . sorry Kyoko-chan but you have to di-oof!" Yukio was saying before Yomiko slammed into his back.

He spun around and with a well placed roundhouse threw Yomiko off the side of the wall, though she grabbed the wall and pulled herself back up Yukio turned his attention on Kyoko.

Naomasa moved faster, drawing a pair of kunai from his equipment pouch he leapt between Kyoko and Yukio just as she'd done for him a moment ago and blocked the other man's blades strike for strike.

Kyoko didn't seem to be thinking really and had thrown herself at Ryu, an opponent not blocked by anything.

The tall girl drew her fist back and punched Ryu with such force that Nao half expected the wall to shatter where he hit it. He bounced and drew his kunai again, trying to stab out with it but he looked dazed. Really he was lucky to be alive, it was a miracle he was standing; Naomasa never knew Kyoko could hit that hard.

Kyoko held out her hand, let the blade impale her palm and twisted sharply, twisting Ryu's wrist.

"Kyoko, stop! It doesn't have to be this way, you can join us too!" Ryu protested.

Yomiko threw herself at Yukio, trying to again get the jump on him from behind. Konohamaru's summoned monkey was thrown from the wall and Nao knew he had to turn his attention on the tattooed ninja but he couldn't just ignore Yukio.

He continued to match blades with Yukio, but now the sand-man was also matching blades with Yomiko, and Yomiko kept him guessing, alternating fire and wind on her blades between strikes with no real pattern.

It sort of made Nao jealous seeing how talented Yomiko was with those knives.

Yukio laughed and trust for Yomiko, she blocked his sand blade with both of her knives. It seemed like she'd prevented his attack for the moment, but then his sand blade suddenly seemed to melt and enveloped her hands.

"Sorry babe, but there's no quarter for rebels." Yukio sneered, and released the blade's hilt though Yomiko's hands appeared trapped and the sand hilt joined into the ball engulfing her hands as well.

He held out a hand and smirked at Nao, "Surrender now or say sayonara to the hot chick's hands."

"You bastard!" Nao roared, deciding that the no-killing rule definitely didn't apply to Yukio.

He rushed forward only to find Yukio's sand coating his own blades, and worse the sand shuriken Yukio had thrown earlier returned to the sand-master and formed a new blade in his free hand to replace the one threatening Yomiko.

Yomiko's legs however struck out, wrapping around Yukio's ankle. He spun around as if he meant to kick her but instead she rolled and sent him toppling.

They both fell over, and Nao was on Yukio before he could crush his or Yomiko's hands.

But then he felt something sharp rip into his shoulder, he looked and saw the almost claw-like hand of the tattooed man, saw that the nails had dug into his flak jacket, though they hadn't pierced it.

The man drew his fist back and hit Naomasa hard in the face.

Then Nao felt something much sharper in his side.

Yukio had stabbed him.

"No!" Yomiko screamed, but Nao barely heard her.

Instead he grabbed Yukio's wrist and glared at him, "Do . . . better." He snarled.

Yukio smirked, "Already have. That sand is going to expand and rip your side to shreds in about three seconds, in the meantime that cursed fool is going to rip your throat out and I get to see what kills you first. Later, Ishida."

Nao snarled and leaned back as if he were offering the abomination his neck, as if he were giving up.

Then his phoenix returned and slammed into him, enveloping him in flames that burned the abomination and did away with the sand in his side, burning Yukio's wrist as well.

It didn't burn Naomasa, though it stung a little. He pulled Yukio closer into the flames, his expression hard and hateful.

He'd tried to kill him, tried to kill Yomiko and while his death might hurt Kyoko his life was clearly doing the same thing.

He was unrepentant, even seemed pleased with what he'd become.

Nao wasn't in the habit of deciding who deserved to live and who deserved to die, but at just that moment he felt pretty certain that Yukio deserved to die.

Yukio just smirked though, as if the pain didn't bother him.

Then suddenly Yukio changed. His face, his expression, his _age_.

He wasn't Yukio, he was a middle aged man screaming for mercy.

Nao let him go and dismissed the fire familiar. The older man was burned and howling in pain.

Nao didn't know how he knew, but he knew. He turned around to look at what should have been a similarly burned abomination but instead he locked eyes with Yukio, who was still smirking.

"You're gonna be a fun one." Yukio sneered, and then viciously he kicked Naomasa in the injured side, he picked up one of Nao's kunai and threw it at Yomiko who'd recovered-Yukio's sand released her when he left his other body-and summoned the remaining sand to his hand.

He formed a katana and holding Nao by the neck raised the blade to finish him off.

Konohamaru grabbed his wrist and Yukio shoved the older man away, but viciously kicked Nao in the injured side again.

Yukio didn't seem to like the odds because he gave Nao a shove for the edge and leapt off himself.

Nao clung to the wall with his chakra, but Yukio let his body hit the ground with a splat, landing in the remains of the armored rat-man that Konohamaru had killed.

It was quiet. No soldiers . . . no . . . no Kyoko?

"Where's Kyoko?" Nao asked as Yomiko and Konohamaru helped him back up onto the wall.

"Dunno," Konohamaru said, "she wasn't here when I got here."

"We've got to find her!" Nao said.

"Are you okay?" Yomiko asked.

"Never mind me!" Nao said, "We have to get Kyoko! You saw her, she's not fighting she's raging like an animal, she'll get killed!"

"No medics around anyway," Konohamaru grunted, "nothing I can do for you. We'll look for a medic and if we find Kyoko so much the better."

Nao didn't let himself look down at his side, it must be bad for Yomiko to express concern and for Konohamaru to so firmly place finding a medic over finding Kyoko.

And in the corner of his mind Nao recognized his cowardice, recognized that the place Yukio had stabbed him did have several organs one didn't want to lose or have damaged . . . and his side hurt a lot.

But he wouldn't leave Kyoko to die in some rage the same as he couldn't have let Yukio maim Yomiko's hands. He couldn't let his friends suffer because he'd been too slow to take a life.

If he'd remembered that Yukio wasn't even there and living to begin with he might have . . .

Might have killed an innocent bystander sooner. He realized then that the man whose body Yukio had been using was also dead, burned to death by Naomasa's fire Jutsu.

Nao had killed him, and he'd done nothing wrong. He'd been a victim . . .

Nao felt like he might vomit, but instead he forced himself to think of Kyoko.

Not the pain in his side, not the man he'd killed.

Kyoko, his friend, who his hesitation might have killed.

"I'm going to find Kyoko." Nao said firmly.

"No, Nao you need a medic," Yomiko said, she took a deep breath, gripped her father's knives tightly and said "I'll look for Kyoko. She's my friend too but . . . but so are you. I won't lose the both of you, Konohamaru-senpai please look after him, I'll find Kyoko-chan, I'll bring her to our mission objective, I promise she and I will meet you two there."

Nao wasn't sure if he'd ever respected Yomiko more than he did at that moment. He wanted to find Kyoko too but at the same time he recognized that his wound would probably only slow Yomiko down . . . besides, she was right; Kyoko was her friend too, he knew he could trust her with finding Kyoko.

So he nodded and let Konohamaru help lead him towards the rendezvous point, where Sensei and his team would be, where the medics would be, and where the Chuunin hopefuls would be. Nao couldn't forget, his friends weren't the only people he had to protect, he was still the third examiner.

* * *

Temari scanned the darkness behind her for any sign of Hitomi in the moonlight.

A falling corpse, a flash of light, or even the sound of a woman screaming as she plummeted to her death.

Then suddenly she saw the suddenly flash as the fire Jutsu formed in Hitomi's hands.

The younger woman had cut herself free and she was plummeting. Temari spun the fan around and went down after her.

Hitomi thrust her hand forward, Temari saw the ninja who'd ridden his own wave after them.

Hitomi hit the water as if it were ground, using her chakra to run down the length of the wave, spitting a few balls of fire at the boat it'd missed as she ran down the vertical slope.

The ninja didn't realize what she'd done to him but Temari did, he screamed and then died, her internal incineration Jutsu having done its work.

With his death the water went crashing back down, no longer shaped.

Temari raced against both the wave and Hitomi, hoping to reach the younger woman before the wave slammed her so far under water that even a fish would drown.

She came closer, and closer, Hitomi seemed to have realized what she was doing-or guessed that the water was coming down too fast for her-and leapt into the air where Temari swooped in to catch her just in time.

"Well . . . that was insane." Temari said, somewhere between approval and disgust at the suicidal tactic.

"I knew I could kill him." Hitomi said simply. "There are two more ships to deal with."

"Right, lets get them fast and get to the real fight."

"Ah yes . . . that . . . forgot about that." Hitomi grunted.

"Worn out?" Temari smirked.

"Why should I be? I only incinerated a man, ran down a collapsing tower of water and leapt into the air to be swept up by a woman on a giant paper fan . . . after spending about the last hour blowing fire balls at battle ships. Tired? Heck, I'm trying to think of a way to tell my daughter this story and not sound like I'm making it all up!" Hitomi laughed, but Temari could hear the weariness in her voice.

"Let's light these two up quick, then we'll take a rest on the cap ship before we join the land battle." Temari suggested.

"No, no rest for the wicked." Hitomi said, "Unless you feel like you can't go on, Nara-senpai, I suggest we join the _real _fight as soon as we can."

"Agreed." Temari's smirk didn't diminish at all, instead it became something rather close to a genuine smile despite the grizzly task ahead of her, "Light 'em up, girl!"

Shikamaru was going to be so impressed by the work she'd done.

* * *

Ryu had recognized that Yukio would be fine and knew he needed to talk to Kyoko so he did the lamest thing he'd ever done.

He drew his battle fan and glided off the wall to the water.

He landed on the surface of the water and ran for the dock, looking over his shoulder to see that indeed, as he suspected, Kyoko had followed him.

She seemed almost like she was in some sort of berserker rage; she only seemed to see him, or maybe she thought her friends could get Yukio and she didn't want him getting away.

Whatever the answer she ran down the vertical wall towards him, changing to the water's surface with a jump when she reached it.

And she ran like a woman possessed, she came for him and he backed off towards the docks.

Again on dry land he fought a defensive fight and tried to reason with her. The street lights had been put out by the ninja but he moved towards a dimly lit area, he wanted her to see his face, wanted her to remember that they were friends.

He wanted her to understand the sincerity in his voice wasn't a ploy.

"Kyoko stop! We can work this out! I joined Sound to protect Yukio!"

Kyoko roared, "You bastard!"

"He needed me, and he needs you too! I can't protect him alone, you have to help me Kyoko! Together we can save Yukio, we can save all of the Five!"

She just screamed and sprang for him again.

Ryu stumbled into the light and when he saw the woman who followed him into the solitary lamp's dim glow he saw both the proof and the reason that Kyoko wasn't acting herself.

He saw the black markings covering half her body and the seal on her neck. He gasped, blown away by what he was seeing. She was one of Orochimaru's cursed chosen? She'd been marked with the cursed seal? Didn't that make her an agent of Orochimaru? Why was she mad at him for serving their master?

Even if for some reason she was blessed with the seal and _not _allied with the Emperor the fact that it was activated should have stripped away her free will just like the experiments, shouldn't it?

Kyoko slammed her fist into the ground, missing his head only because he recovered enough of his senses to dodge at the last second.

Her red hair wasn't restrained in any style, though she'd had it tied when she arrived it'd come loose and now she looked like some sort of primitive, wild monster.

Ryu swallowed hard and took a few nervous steps back, "C-calm down! I'm your friend! Y-you're one of the Emperor's chosen, you have his mark, there's no reason to attack me!"

"Having trouble controlling that one, Senpai?" Someone asked, Ryu felt his heart seize up, he looked over his shoulder and saw a pair of shinobi rushing towards him.

His head jerked back to Kyoko, she'd left the direct lamplight but the black marks on her otherwise soft pale skin were still visible in the dim light, "S-stay back!" Ryu shouted, holding a hand out and worrying that they might see Kyoko was wearing a Sunagakure flak jacket if they got any closer.

"We've got one left, we'll restrain her!" The voice called, "One-six-eight, hold her down so we can get her under control!"

Ryu kept his hand held out to keep the other men back, and turned to Kyoko.

"Kyoko stop! Calm down or we'll be forced to kill you! Just calm down!"

The larger experiment came into the light like a lightning bolt, he slammed into Kyoko, Ryu could see the shock and pain in the girl's eyes-both the human eye and the transfigured one-as the stronger opponent held her head in one massive clawed hand, raised her into the air and then slammed her hard into the ground.

If Kyoko weren't affected by a cursed seal she might have been killed, luckily One-six-eight didn't seem to recognize her uniform or care about it, and had restrained her instead of simply killing her.

The prisoner, One-six-eight was shaved completely bald and Ryu could see nothing had been done to cover his damaged face; his missing eye. Ryu was shaking as the monster obediently held Kyoko to the ground. The girl seemed to be in shock, she wasn't moving.

Ryu brought his face close to hers, "Come on Kyoko, believe me. Yukio needs us!"

"Evil . . ." Kyoko mumbled, her eyes staring into space as the other two Sound ninja approached, "You're all . . ."

"No!" Ryu snarled, he _wouldn't _justify himself any further. Not to himself, not to anyone else. He _knew _why he was fighting this war, he knew what his cause was and damn her and anyone else who questioned him.

"No, _no_!" He roared, "We're _not _evil, we're servants of the Emperor just like _you _should be! Just like every one of the fools attacking this city should be! If everyone served the Emperor there'd be no war, you idiot! Instead Konoha's rabble come raising a ruckus, killing our men, burning our fleet, terrorizing the citizens! You call _me _evil? I'm fighting for something more important to me than country lines, what are you fighting for? What are any of those out in the dark fighting for?"

"Sir, lower your voice, we're in a bad position." One of the other ninja said.

"Why explain to it anyway? Just collar the thing and lets get on with the fighting."

Ryu crouched in front of Kyoko and brought his face close to hers, looking her in the eyes, "You're the reason Yukio's in chains, why he can't go free. You and everyone like you, your little rebellion, if there weren't any war we could all be together, the four of us, Me and Yukio and you and Temari-sensei too, we could live in harmony but you screwed it up! You insufferable, selfish idiots!"

"Bastard!" Kyoko screamed again, "You're the selfish one, you think I don't know what you feel? You think I never _knew_? You bastard, you think I didn't _die _knowing Kotaro and Yukio were members of the Five?" Kyoko wailed, struggling against One-six-eight now, "I told myself they may not have had a choice but _you_! To follow knowingly, willingly the man responsible for the death of your parents _and _mine! He _started _the wars, we _had _peace before him! I could be an artist painting pictures in parks, but I'm a ninja killing on battlefields!" Kyoko screamed, her cursed seal seemed to be receding, she was crying and her right eye was bleeding.

Ryu glared at her, his fighting spirit evaporating. "I . . . I did it for Yukio."

"I did it for Yukio too . . . and for Kotaro, and for Temari-sensei, and fro Kenji-sensei, and for my mother, and my father, for Yomiko-chan and Naomasa-kun, for Shikamaru-sensei, for Sumiko-chan, and Gaara-sama, for all of them! For everyone!" Kyoko roared, her black markings coming back, her eyes looked at him with almost frightening clarity.

She elbowed One-six-eight hard and freed one of her hands, "I understand . . . but I can't forgive you so easily." Kyoko said, wiping the blood from her eye before One-six-eight could grab her arm again.

"I'm still your friend . . . I'm still Ryu . . ." Ryu said, almost pleadingly. He didn't want to fight her anymore. He'd never wanted to fight her.

"Not the Ryu I knew. The Ryu I grew up with is dead, a victim of this war . . ." Kyoko said, the words hit Ryu like a ton of bricks. He shook his head at her, wanting to deny it but he knew she was at least partially right. He'd betrayed everything just for Yukio? He'd betrayed _everyone _for one person? He _was _different than before . . . was that bad?

Wasn't he still a good person?

But Kyoko wasn't done talking. She looked at him, her eyes leaving no doubts as to her sincerity when she said, "All that's left is a soulless shell, as long as it's around my friend can't rest in peace. I have no choice but to destroy-no I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so vague; to _kill_ the body my friend left behind." Kyoko growled, wiping the blood from her eye away on her arm, over a tattoo that looked so different than the others.

"Summoning Jutsu!" She shouted.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	43. Destiny or mere Chance?

**Chapter Forty One**

Hinata's eyes fluttered open and she sat up quickly, shaking her head in surprise.

A small toad?

"Evening missy." The toad croaked.

"Um . . ." Hinata blinked, "Are you . . ."

"Sent by the Sixth Hokage? Yes ma'am." The toad said.

Hinata almost couldn't breathe. She leaned forward, towards the toad and waited.

It stared at her. She stared at it.

Finally she said, "Well?"

"Oh-well he's-"

"Hinata!" Tenten gasped, rushing over to Hinata's camp site, "The city, there's fighting in the city! The ships in the harbor are on fire and the city is slowly blacking out, the patrols that were in the woods are high tailing it back into town!"

"In the city . . . yeah." The toad finished.

Hinata was on her feet in a flash, "Wake the clan!" She shouted, "We're moving out!" Hinata held her arm out to the toad, who leapt onto her shoulder, "Take me to the Hokage, young toad. Take me to Uzumaki Naruto!"

"No need to shout." The toad said with a shrug.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this." Hinata growled, and they ran for the City of Waves.

* * *

Kotaro felt better the longer he was away from the palace, so it was almost reluctantly that he continued to do the emperor's bidding, knowing that once his mission was complete he'd be heading back.

The enemy's command ship, or at least the Konoha command ship was right ahead of him, his small submersible had surfaced just long enough to let him off and then he had run across the water to the ship.

He clung to the hull with his chakra now, but tried to keep his signature suppressed so that he wouldn't be found by any sensors unless they were looking for him specifically.

He climbed up the side of the ship and slid onto the deck.

He saw a pair of armored soldiers walking by, he hid in the shadows and he let them pass, getting a good look at the one nearest to him.

Once they were gone he sprang into action, he used the transformation Jutsu to turn into the man he'd observed and rushed below decks. He quickly found a soldier and, recognizing that the man he was impersonating was higher ranking than the other and hoping the two weren't friends he tapped the other man roughly on the shoulder and said "I have a message for the ranking Konoha officer, Uchiha Sasuke. Where is he?"

"Uchiha Sasuke?" The soldier said, "Are you crazy? You know he's with the Mist village, he's on their ship."

Kotaro seethed inwardly, "I mean _from _him, sorry." He lied, "Where's the quarters of the ranking Konoha officer?"

"Oh right . . . pass me the letter and I'll see 'e gets it." The soldier said lazily.

Kotaro frowned, "It's of a delicate nature."

"Then I'll carry it with both hands." The soldier said lightly, "Come on pal, stop messing with me, you know I can't just let you-"

Kotaro shut him up by slamming his head into the wall hard enough to knock him out but not hard enough to kill him. He wasn't sure why he spared the man's life really, but giving it a second of thought he supposed it just hadn't been what he felt like doing at the moment.

He hid the man's unconscious body in a nearby room beneath a bunk and took the man's clothing, it'd be easier to get around in a uniform than in a transformation Jutsu-if he lost his concentration or something he could be exposed if the Jutsu failed.

But in uniform he didn't need to expend chakra keeping up his disguise and nobody ever bothered to look at the face of a soldier. To most folks every grunt looked the same.

Kotaro found his way through the ship. He could have left right away but while his ship was submerged the Mist village's Super Destroyers had disappeared, he needed to find _someone _who could tell them where they'd gone.

Almost on pure luck he came to a room with guards dressed in Wind uniforms. It seemed odd given that he'd only seen Fire soldiers up to this point.

He stopped in front of them and said "How goes the watch?"

The first man glowered at him, but the second stepped aside, "I assume you have business in Nara Shikamaru's quarters. You were expected."

Kotaro blinked, "Was I?"

He was truly blown away for a second at the thought that his old Sensei who was reputed for thinking hundreds of steps ahead might actually have anticipated his presence, but he quickly dispelled the thought.

These soldiers didn't even know who he was, they probably though the was a messenger. Since the man he'd gotten the uniform from had offered to deliver the message perhaps he was.

Intrigued, and assuming that the guards must belong to Shikamaru-sensei's wife he nodded and allowed the second man to open the door for him.

He walked inside and the door was quickly shut behind him. He tensed and wondered if his sensei would recognize him.

He waited for the sensation of being caught in a shadow possession Jutsu but it never came.

He folded his arms, keeping them away from the weapons at his hips to indicate his disinterest in combat, though if he needed to defend himself his body's chakra reserves were fairly full and he could work his host to death if necessary, killing Nara Temari and Nara Shikamaru would be enough of a coup to the enemy that the Emperor would forgive him for failing to get Uchiha.

And if he won without dying he could extract the information on Uchiha's whereabouts.

But . . .

He'd had a lot of time to think since he left the palace.

He didn't see any reason to kill his old Sensei, even in self defense since _he _wouldn't die and his host was such a broken man that death would only be a release for him.

All Orochimaru needed was Sasuke . . . then his mother, his father, they'd be free . . . they could join the rebels, _he _could join the rebels . . . maybe Shikamaru-sensei would understand that and they could work something out, turn Sasuke in as part of a trap . . .

He didn't know, the idea of seeing Shikamaru again, maybe getting some guidance . . .

"Sorry to disappoint," A woman's voice said, "but I'm not who you're expecting."

Kotaro frowned when he saw a woman in her twenties sitting in a chair.

Near her was a little girl and he felt a little surprised to realize he recognized both of them.

The woman was one of Naomasa's sisters, the second youngest who'd married a Wind general, which explained the guards.

The little girl was his sensei's daughter . . .

"What're you two doing here?" Kotaro asked.

"Well Sumiko-chan couldn't watch herself, could she?" Emiko said with a smile.

"Where's Shikamaru-sensei?" Kotaro asked.

"I guess you'll find out soon enough, won't you? But I can't tell you, it's classified, even if you _were _one of his students. Shall we have tea?"

Sumiko smiled at Kotaro and waved at him. He felt a little sick having to say it but he warned Emiko, "I can kill you and this girl in seconds, long before anyone could stop me." Kotaro said.

"I know you can . . . but I doubt you will. It's not who you are, is it?" Emiko smiled and poured a cup of tea, "Besides while my trust is complete I'd hate to be wrong for the first time and get dear Sumiko hurt. Obviously we're not alone in this room."

"Indeed . . ." Kotaro said. He wasn't a sensor so he'd had no idea that there might be ninja in the room, but then again he was still pretty sure he could kill both this woman and the child before Uzumaki Naruto himself could stop him.

"Sumiko-chan, do you remember Hatake Kotaro?" Emiko asked.

Sumiko smiled and tilted her head to the side for a moment, then nodded.

Kotaro couldn't help but smile in spite of himself, which made Emiko smile broadly, "Oh come on now, sit, have some tea. We're all friends here . . . you and my brother are good friends, aren't you?"

"We were." Kotaro said.

"Oh? What changed? Your side in the war? Don't be silly . . . when this war is over sides won't matter anymore, and you're a Konoha ninja at heart. Sumiko-chan, did you know that Kotaro is on the other side? Do you care?"

Sumiko shook her head.

"You don't mind if he has tea with us, even though he's not in our army?"

Again the girl shook her head, in fact _she _offered Kotaro a cup of tea.

He smiled weakly and shook his head, "I shouldn't."

"We have nothing to gain by poisoning you." Emiko said, but Kotaro just shrugged in response.

"Look this is all really pleasant but I have a job. Since you recognize that I _am _an enemy you know there's no point trying to stop me from doing what I have to do."

Emiko was quiet for a moment, then she said "Your mind is never out of the range of their people . . . you see your actual body is where they can always reach it even if your consciousness is not. Clever man, that Emperor, don't you think, Sumiko?"

Sumiko nodded, then said "Daddy's smarter."

"I think so too." Emiko smiled, "Personally I don't know intellect, or strategy . . . I just guess . . . and I get lucky. I guessed you'd come here tonight Kotaro, I guessed you wouldn't do anything terrible . . . I also guess that I'm not exactly what you'd call . . . uninteresting, to Orochimaru. I've guessed that my sisters, including those living in his territories, and my brother, _your _friend, Kotaro, aren't totally uninteresting to Orochimaru. I know that Orochimaru wouldn't have wanted you to hurt me. But what I have to say tonight isn't for him, it's for you Kotaro . . . when this is all over you will be with your family, even if it isn't the family you pictured."

Kotaro's heart began to beat faster, he whispered, "What the heck are you talking about?"

Family could mean a lot of things, and what was this woman blathering on about? Was his mother going to die? Was his father? What if they couldn't get Sasuke? Would everyone stay their blades or would they just kill his mother anyway to stop Orochimaru?

He knew the answer . . . it scared him but he realized he'd protect Orochimaru in order to protect his mother and he begrudgingly acknowledged just how clever Orochimaru had been in taking his mother as his host.

"We're out of time, you need to go . . . go to Waves, Kotaro-san, that is where you'll find Uchiha Sasuke, it's where you'll find the ships . . . they've given you the slip and in a moment your master will want to let you know. For the safety of your host body I suggest you be on your own ship when you're called back, he'd just cause a ruckus here."

Kotaro frowned, but he couldn't help but obey her . . . if his body went out of his control his host might attack Emiko and Sumiko, might do something dangerous in order to get himself killed.

He quickly left the ship, nobody tried to stop him or question him.

He got back to his vessel and almost immediately he felt the tug on his mind that meant he needed to have his body restrained.

The crew of the submersible complied and Kotaro returned to his real body.

He found it hard to breathe, he knew that wasn't good.

He sat up in the coffin-like container and saw Kabuto looking down on him, "Your body is out of position, Kotaro-kun."

"I'm sorry, I had thought I could ambush the fleet in the dark and abduct Uchiha while he was still recovering from the battle."

"Indeed. Well you may yet get that chance . . . have you got a body in Waves?"

Kotaro's heartbeat accelerated, Kabuto smiled, "That's right. They gave you the slip. Seems Konoha's Genius is well deserving of his title, hmm? Yukio has already lost his secondary Waves body so we'll need you to get into the fight as quickly as you can. Are you prepared?"

"Absolutely, sir."

"Remember Kotaro, bring him in and your darling mother will be released."

"Of course." Kotaro said, "Now with all due respect let me do my damn job."

"Wouldn't dream of stopping you." Kabuto smirked and stepped back as Kotaro lay back in the channeling chamber.

In a flash Kotaro woke up in a new body, and the staff of the serpent shrine in which he resided were going crazy.

"Kill the subjects, they'll be through any moment!" One man shouted.

"The Lord's vessels as well?" Another man asked.

"All of them, may the gods forgive us!"

Kotaro slammed his fist against the bars of his cage and said, "I wouldn't. Let me out."

"Sir, enemies are upon us, the shrine is in danger." The woman, a shrine maiden said.

"And I am here to smite them," Kotaro said calmly, "but you will not execute my vessels, you will not hinder the Emperor's work by executing his test subjects."

The woman shrank visibly, "Y-yes, Lord."

Kotaro exited the cell and his uniform and equipment were brought to him by the two men who seemed very nervous, "The whole city is crawling with ninja, sir, most all the street lamps are out there's no telling who's who. The soldiers were carrying torches for a bit but that just made them easier to find it seems, and one stupid bastard led them right to us, praying that you'd see him spared."

Kotaro glowered, "You didn't let him into the shrine?"

"Of course not, we barricaded. But the ninja are into the upper shrine and the worship areas, we barely made it to the lower chambers to prevent them from finding the Emperor's holy works."

Kotaro felt disgusted but it was difficult to really understand why, his head was a bit fuzzy.

Something about a religious place turning away a frightened man didn't sit well with him, and he decided for no reason beyond simple spite to say, "You should all be ashamed. The one time this place might have done a bit of _good _for someone you thought only of yourselves. For all you know that man's prayers were the only thing that brought me to this particular place to save your lives, because I know the ninja of Konoha. One look at this place and you would have been executed, _especially _if you'd killed these helpless ones here."

He didn't care enough about the three to look at their expressions and see if his words had any impact, he himself thought it'd be a rather cruel twist if there truly were a god who had chosen this particular shrine to fall under attack and this particular time to have Kotaro decide to use the body in this shrine, saving the lives of these three people.

Did they deserve it?

Was it his to judge whether or not they did?

After all, he wasn't really a god.

Fully prepared to join the war he stepped to the door of the chamber and opened it.

Immediately he was beset by a group of Kiri ninja, he knocked one of them unconscious and sealed the door behind him.

Such luck . . .

He said, "One of you is going to tell me where Uchiha Sasuke is. That one gets to live."

* * *

Okatsu was in a rage, "What the _hell _do you think you're doing?" She demanded of a pair of guards who were just sort of standing around, "Go kill something, damn you!"

She was not in the best of moods. The battle wasn't going well and it seemed she was going to have to get her own hands dirty pretty soon.

The defense of the city was going badly, the experiments were loose but in all the chaos they were just as likely to slaughter a squad of imperial soldiers as they were to actually attack any ninja, in the dark their ninja handlers didn't always recognize the enemy in time to stop them and by all reports those that had encountered the enemy hadn't even _seen _any sign of the actual invasion force, no samurai no soldiers, just a bunch of ninja burning boats and putting out street lamps.

It'd be dawn in a few hours and there was no way they'd last that long. Okatsu wasn't the best combatant, she could train a ninja to be a young god but she herself couldn't do much in a pitched fight.

But Lord Orochimaru and Lord Kabuto had given everything they had to control the world, she wouldn't let a single city be taken away from them. With the Five in the city if they lost it'd mean she'd failed as a mentor, that she'd failed her primary task as Lord Kabuto's Shinobi instructor and failed the Emperor as his servant, and, she had sometimes dared to hope, eventual successor.

And that just wouldn't do.

The Five were loose on the city, she'd had Kasumi report to the Emperor that Kotaro would be needed and had found out from the girl that Yukio had already lost his second body-the first had been lost at sea of course-and was coming back in his third and final.

Shiroi and Kurai were in the thick of the fight, Shiroi's report said that she'd already met with a Chuunin squad and killed three of them, the fourth, their medic, had been left alive to be taken prisoner, medics didn't grow on trees after all and if the battle ended favorably _someone _would have to patch up the Emperor's surviving servants.

Okatsu fumed when she saw the guards had ignored her, she stormed over to them, Kasumi hot in tow and shouted, "Did you two hear me? I told you to-"

She leapt back, once she'd come close enough to slap the first man in the back of the head he suddenly spun around and stabbed for her with his spear.

The second man had slashed out with his sword.

"Don't run ma'am, we're just following your orders!" The spearman shouted, charging for her, the swordsman came on as well but Kasumi threw herself at the both of them, intercepting the spear and throwing it wide so that the swordsman had to slash through the shaft of the weapon to avoid being struck by it.

Kasumi herself took a kunai and slammed it into the swordsman's stomach, Okatsu noted for just a moment before he doubled over, screaming in pain that the man looked very confused.

Kasumi tore the sword from its dying owner's grasp and viciously cut through the spearman's throat.

He fell down looking similarly shocked, the Hattori girl raised the sword and quickly finished both men and Okatsu swore at her.

"Stupid! They were possessed by a Jutsu!"

"All the more reason not to leave them lying around for later use against us, Sensei." Kasumi said sharply, "Obviously the enemy is here."

"Closer than you think." A voice said. Okatsu suddenly seized up.

She couldn't control her own body . . .

She was allowed-was _allowed_-to turn around and face the man controlling her with thin, almost invisible strands of his shadow like a puppet master's chakra string.

The one thing she could do to the man who'd trapped her was glare, and if looks could kill she'd have been the victor of their battle in an instant.

But they couldn't, and so all she could do was stand helpless and glare pure hatred at Nara Shikamaru.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Odd Note: **This chapter is actually five hours later than I had originally planned to post it. You see after finishing it and getting ready to put it online I fell asleep at the keyboard . . . now my head hurts but I'm feeling "mysteriously" refreshed . . . I'd love to act like this was all because I work so hard to bring you guys the weekly updates but nah. Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter, I was pleased to be able to devote some time to Kotaro . . . oh but I'll bet you guys were more interested in the guy who shows up in the _next _chapter; well don't worry . . . **Sasuke **will totally be in the next chapter.

o_-


	44. Exit Okatsu?

**Chapter Forty Two**

The large weasel sprang for Ryu and he fell back, Kyoko wouldn't let him go though.

She swept her elbow back, striking her cursed opponent in the jaw and though he was no doubt very strong her own strength was amplified just enough that he flinched and was knocked off of her back.

She was up and after Ryu; he was her target.

He was the true traitor, at least in her eyes.

She threw a kunai and she missed, but Ryu was on the defensive now.

The other two ninja came at her, but her summoned weasel, Naginata slammed into the first of them.

She'd grown a great deal since the fall of Konoha. Naginata was Kyoko's closest companion, and she knew Ryu very well. She also knew that Kyoko had attacked him so she had no question of who her enemy was.

She swept her tail and efficiently as any battle fan a gust of cutting wind flew towards Ryu.

He blocked it with his own fan, blowing the wind towards a nearby building, blowing out all the windows. Kyoko threw a kunai again and drew a scroll from her pouch.

Ryu charged at her, one of the ninja screamed, "She's wearing a uniform, that's not one of ours!"

"She's still marked, she's still one of the Emperor's favored, do not kill her!" Ryu shouted.

That order would work to her advantage. Kyoko used her scroll and summoned up two more weasels.

Kyoko knew that the monstrous enemy would reach her soon, the two weasels were for him, Ryu remained her own, very personal target.

But the two weasels seemed like little more than a door stop to the monster, he swatted them both aside and grabbed Naginata and threw her into Kyoko, knocking the young woman off her feet.

She fell in a heap, her summoned weasel on top of her. The two others tried to make another attack, wind chakra cutting and slicing through the air, but the monster grabbed one of them with his claw and threw the poor creature so far away that Kyoko didn't want to imagine what happened to it when it landed.

She released Naginata and the other weasel, though it might not have been a good idea she didn't want them to be hurt and she was confident that Ryu wouldn't let her be killed. She couldn't make the same promise towards him though.

She _would _kill Ryu if she could . . .

She would kill all of them if she could.

She let her curse recede, setting forth the illusion of calm.

Ryu didn't relax much, but as the last of her heightened senses gave out she noticed that he _did _relax.

He crouched in front of her as the monster roughly pinned her to the ground by the back of her neck with his scaled, reptilian arm and knelt on her back in a manner that she realized would make it easy for him to put his weight on her and simply break her spinal cord. Still she squirmed and struggled, but also tried to look exhausted, and as if to prove her right the sad creature holding her down made no effort to harm her, only to hold her.

She'd be spared at least until she killed Ryu . . . She watched him with cold eyes. To her he was already dead, if he understood her resolve he'd have killed her right away and saved his life.

Maybe he just didn't want to live.

She was just about ready to strike when suddenly the monstrosity on top of her was knocked back, and a familiar presence stood above her.

"Temari-sensei?" Kyoko whispered.

* * *

Okatsu shook with fury . . . on the inside.

Externally she was frozen solid.

But not for long.

Kasumi sprang, grabbing Okatsu and pushing the older woman into her own shadow, she didn't have to move she just fell.

Okatsu couldn't see or breathe for a moment and then, suddenly she was free of the dark, and more importantly she could move.

She quickly formed the hand seals for a fire Jutsu and lit up the night.

She set fire to the ground, using it to see just where Shikamaru's shadow was.

"You're not getting off _that _easily!" A voice shouted.

Okatsu spun around and saw the "human boulder" rolling towards her.

She scowled and Kasumi again took her into her own shadow.

More ninja were arriving now to assist them-the rebels, _not _Okatsu-and the situation looked dire.

Okatsu gripped Kasumi's wrist and clung so deeply that her long sharp nails drew blood, "Kill someone," she hissed, "or I will see to it that your entire clan is exterminated!"

It was a rash, unrealistic threat but Okatsu was afraid.

She was alone except for Kasumi, she was outnumbered, she didn't have the ability to defend herself against foes of this sort . . .

She was in a dangerous position . . . in her own body.

But she wouldn't let her ambitions and her journey simply end.

It wasn't time, not yet, she couldn't let hem kill her.

But against Nara Shikamaru alone she would be hard pressed to find victory, against so many Jounin . . .

* * *

"Temari-sensei?" Kyoko whispered.

"Not quite," Yomiko said, "but good enough to get you out of here, I think."

The two enemy ninja rushed Yomiko and she slashed at them with her father's knives, wind chakra rippling through them.

The enemy ninja leapt back and regrouped, recognizing the danger wind blades posed. Yomiko knew that the monster pinning Kyoko would come after her next, it's what _she _would've done in it's position.

She used the substitution Jutsu right away, letting him body slam a log instead of her.

She reappeared near Kyoko and helped the other woman to her feet, Kyoko nodded brief thanks, Yomiko said, "Let's get out of here, to the rendezvous point."

"After they're dead." Kyoko whispered coldly, even as the monstrosity turned back to them and prepared to leap and attack.

Yomiko wanted to remind Kyoko that no matter how angry she was at that moment the enemy she was attacking was Ryu, her friend, and perhaps a valuable asset if he could be taken alive but this wasn't the time.

They needed to evade and escape, they were outnumbered two to one and their enemies had a major advantage.

Besides, Nao was already worried, Yomiko had told him she'd get Kyoko and she didn't intend for that to be a lie. It wouldn't help his state of mind any if both she and Kyoko failed to make it to the rendezvous point. If he was too worried about them the Chuunin-hopefuls under his supervision could get hurt.

Yomiko didn't have time to tell Kyoko any of that, the monstrosity threw itself at them.

It-_he_-looked mildly familiar, but Yomiko couldn't place his face.

Perhaps because it was dark, perhaps because nothing about his shorn head and scarred face seemed familiar, still there was _something_ . . .

Irrelevant when Yomiko started dodging and weaving, moving to stay alive.

Ryu came in as well, but his target was Kyoko. He was trying to subdue her.

Yomiko couldn't allow that, but she also couldn't do much to stop it, the monstrosity she faced was far too fast, far too aggressive.

And she couldn't lose track of the other two ninja, they'd split up and run to the left and right, they were moving to position themselves behind her and Kyoko.

Yomiko inhaled sharply as if she meant to use a Fire Summoning Jutsu, and she noted the enemy jumped back and braced himself.

And she threw herself at him instead of using any chakra on a flame attack that would just held to better expose her in the darkness. Instead she let her knives lead the way, hoping for a quick kill.

He raised his reptilian arm to block the blow and she cut deeply into it, not quite severing it but she was certain she'd cut through to bone.

To her shock however as soon as her blade was free the arm stopped bleeding, and she could _see _the flesh closing together again.

Insane, impossible, and yet she was _seeing _it.

She also saw the backhand, and dodged it accordingly, only to find herself suddenly ankle deep in mud which started almost immediately to harden, the young woman couldn't move her feet at all.

One of the ninja behind her had used a Jutsu and the other leapt through the air and inhaled sharply.

He used a fireball Jutsu on her, Yomiko used flames of her own, inhaling and breathing the moment she realized what was happening.

Too late, her flames only spared her from the worst of the blast, and the mud that trapped her kept her from properly evading it.

She glanced at Kyoko, was any help coming?

Kyoko was too busy fighting Ryu to notice, she seemed really aggressive, not at all the usual Kyoko. Yomiko couldn't make out details in the dim light, just two silhouettes locked in mortal combat.

Much like herself.

She needed to get free, or she'd die . . .

* * *

Kasumi ducked low and avoided-narrowly-a pair of kunai.

"We can't hold out like this!" She screamed frantically. _She _could simply let her host die and come back in a new body, or even leap into a nearby willing body though in that case the jump would only be temporary unless the body was properly suitable for her consciousness.

But Okatsu-sensei, whom Kasumi had to admit she'd _love _to see viciously brutalized, violated, heck even vivisected, couldn't be lost to the enemy.

"You defend me," Okatsu shouted to her, "kill them! Kill all of them!"

Kasumi was _trying_. Her usual talents however weren't a lot of use, the enemy seemed to _want _to separate her and Okatsu, if she abandoned Okatsu to shadow hop and slaughter they would get her.

So Kasumi was forced to play defense. She had killed two enemy ninja, both just particularly gutsy Chuunin, but that was over.

The lower tier ninja were staying back, letting their legends and Jounin battle her while they carried on with their missions.

Kasumi had seen several ninja rush into the barracks, though the building was already empty, and she'd seen more ninja going to other government buildings, they were securing the Daimyo's palace area.

But the daimyo himself would be perfectly safe in his bunker beneath the palace, Okatsu had seen to it that an entire battalion of expertly trained Samurai were with him. Kasumi supposed if she could _get _Okatsu-sensei to that bunker . . .

She laughed then, realizing that that was what the enemy _wanted._

These were Konoha ninja after all, they would have Hattori who could see her if she moved through her shadow, she was sure of it. She hadn't noticed any yet, but probably only because they knew she'd kill them first.

If she tried to run with Okatsu-sensei they'd follow her, find the bunker and get the Daimyo.

So obvious really, the Legendary Konoha Genius aught to be ashamed of himself for being so obvious. His situation wasn't going to get any better, Kasumi realized that Okatsu wasn't in honest danger so she took a big risk.

She leapt into her shadow, abandoning Okatsu who immediately ducked behind a broken portion of wall for cover which would last her two seconds at best, but Kasumi planned to return by then.

She leapt through the shadows behind one enemy Jounin and emerged, snapping the man's neck in a flash . . . of smoke, he'd substituted which is what she'd come to expect from a Jounin. She twisted and grabbed the man's arm, he'd reappeared behind her and tried to stab her in the back, but Kasumi hadn't allowed it, grabbing his arm instead and pulling it viciously, dislocating it.

Then she elbowed the man in the nose and dropped him, she just regretted that he wasn't Nara Shikamaru, and she scanned the area for that dreaded nemesis in all the time it took for the man to fall to the ground unconscious and for her to sink into her shadow.

She didn't want Shikamaru catching her with his shadow, he no doubt realized that she could see through his shadow tricks even in the dark because he'd backed off. Akimichi Chouji was still pressuring them though, and Kasumi returned to Okatsu before the massive ninja could capitalize on her absence.

There was a terrible buzzing sound, Kasumi scanned the ninja around them and saw nothing.

Then she looked up and saw the swarm of insects that descended on her, she swallowed hard, were these Kurai's bugs or another Aburame?

After all Konoha was their home village, there were bound to be some of Kurai's relatives in the Konoha ranks.

She leapt over the wall only to find that Okatsu hadn't waited there, she'd tried to run like an idiot and now Kasumi needed to catch her before the bugs caught them.

And she failed, Okatsu didn't see her, didn't stop or run towards her so they could escape in the shadows and though Kasumi was faster she didn't have any time to gain as the insects swarmed them

This particular swarm however didn't bite or sting her, and Okatsu-sensei didn't scream.

The bugs were friends, Kasumi felt relief. She couldn't see much outside of the swarm so she didn't keep running to reach Okatsu, but she did jog, there was less of a rush now because she knew Kurai was protecting-

"No!" She shouted, suddenly unable to move.

_No, no, no! Stupid, stupid! _She thought to herself.

Nara Shikamaru; the bastard. He'd used an Aburame swarm to lull Kasumi into a false sense of security for a single second.

That second had been all he needed to obscure her vision and ensnare her in his shadow.

Now the bugs attacked, adding injury to insult.

Kasumi wanted to scream but she couldn't instead she abandoned her host, hoping that seeing the innocent young woman they'd killed _instead _of Kasumi herself would give the Konoha ninja some pause.

She opened her eyes in Orochimaru's palace, Kabuto was nearby.

"Not going well?" Kabuto asked her.

"I'm going back now!" Kasumi said.

"Don't let me stop you . . . in fact I'll see if you know who feels like making an appearance . . ." Kabuto turned to leave.

Kasumi felt a chill run down her spine.

Things must be going bad for the others as well if Kabuto was going to ask Lord Orochimaru if he wanted to get involved personally . . .

* * *

Kotaro punched the Kiri Chuunin right through a glass window.

The man rolled but didn't get up. He was breathing, _slightly_, Kotaro leapt through the hole he'd made in the window.

He spotted a hooded figure standing in the streets, his first thought was to tell the old coot to get out of the war zone. He didn't appear to be a ninja at first, he wasn't contributing to the attack on the Serpent Shrine and neither the ninja nor the surviving soldiers seemed to pay him any mind.

But he went to the unconscious Kiri-ninja and seemed to be checking him for a pulse with complete calm, a very ninja thing to do. Was he a medic then? It made sense, Kotaro supposed. The soldiers had bigger fish to fry and the ninja wouldn't attack their own medic.

Kotaro rushed the man and grabbed him by the neck, slamming him against a wall.

His eyes grew dark and he growled, "Where is Uchiha Sasuke?"

"You got me." The man said, then he chuckled, "In more ways than one I guess."

Kotaro released the medic, he didn't want to hold onto the man for too long, if he were a ninja he could counter attack and ruin Kotaro's body.

Then suddenly there was a blast, Kotaro spun around saw the Mizukage standing in front of the splinters of the great doors to his serpent shrine.

The lower area would still be safe but in the fire of the burning wooden door it was obvious that the Mizukage, who stood perfectly calm with his sword slung over his shoulder, was not the man who'd opened the door.

"Take what you can, any secrets of Orochimaru's are going to be ours!" The Mizukage shouted.

"You _want _his research?" A man-likely the man who'd made the fireball that blasted the door-standing near the Mizukage demanded incredulously as the last soldiers fled for their lives and the platoon of Mist ninja advanced on the shrine, none of them seeming to notice Kotaro or their imperiled medic in the dark, away from the fires that were engulfing the shrine's large wooden doors.

He knew who that man had to be, he dropped the medic and sprang in time to hear the Mizukage saying, "only to find any information on military locations of course, Sasuke-kun, I'd never personally_ use_ any of the research he's done, I'm not a _monster_."

Kotaro hit the ground between the two men, drew his sword and blocked the Mizukage's incoming blade-for such a large weapon the Mizukage drew it so effortlessly-and with his other hand he formed the hand seals for Chidori.

It was difficult with just one hand, but not impossible for Kotaro, and he felt his cursed seal activating itself.

Just as all of Kurai's host bodies had had to have their bodies adapted to store and use Aburame insects-without the hosts themselves knowing how to herd them, least they escape-Kurai's hosts all had cursed seals if he meant to use his.

It gave him a narrower pool to choose from at first, but Lord Orochimaru had been all too happy to start handing out the seals again once everything was in place, and it allowed Kotaro to use the power of the seal even if his own body and his own cursed mark were still in the palace.

He struck out with his Chidori, Uchiha was already trying to do the same but something grabbed his hand and yanked him backwards, keeping him from striking Sasuke but also keeping Sasuke from obliterating him.

He glared in hatred at the hooded man, wondering how he'd managed to restrain him, _him _a cursed being.

One look and he knew, and his blood chilled. The hood was gone, and the man was illuminated in the firelight. His spiky blonde hair seemed like fire itself in the firelight, and his firm eyes were unafraid.

"Now _I've_ got _you_," The sixth Hokage said almost jovially, and to Kotaro's confusion and definite worry he saw and felt Orochimaru's curse fleeing back up his arm, as if the touch alone of Uzumaki Naruto exorcised the evil from the seal.

Kotaro swallowed a lump in his throat, Uzumaki Naruto just smiled at him.

"You look a lot like your dad, Kotaro-san. How's he doing?"

Kotaro's expression cracked just a bit, for some reason Uzumaki just didn't bring out any killer instinct in him, all he could do was whisper, "I have no idea, sir . . ."

* * *

Shikamaru released his shadow possession Jutsu.

As he'd predicted, Kasumi had abandoned her host, and Okatsu, left alone, had been easy prey.

The woman was lying in a heap, her chakra drained to dangerously low levels, her life was in her hands now.

If she tried to raise any resistance she'd expend the very chakra she was using to stay alive.

This was her real body or she'd have abandoned it. It filled Shikamaru with no small measure of excitement to know that he had actually captured one of Orochimaru's trusted advisors.

If the Five were Orochimaru's fist then Kabuto and Okatsu were definitely his eyes, and Shikamaru was about to gouge one of those eyes out.

He hadn't expected this kind of luck, but nevertheless he had Okatsu now and he'd die before he let her get away . . . or better yet, he'd see to it _she _died before he let her get away.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	45. Reunions

**Chapter Forty Three**

Sasuke couldn't really believe his eyes and to his surprise he also didn't know how to react to what he was seeing.

His Sharingan were working at their maximum there was no way it was a Genjutsu . . . he was looking Uzumaki Naruto . . .

Naruto wore a tattered brown traveling outfit, not the white and red of a Hokage, not the orange he usually sported. Still there was no mistaking him . . . and Sasuke didn't know how he felt about that.

Naruto looked pretty healthy, no missing limbs or crippling injuries . . . and he didn't seem to be at the head of some insanely powerful army . . . so what the _hell _had he been doing for the past four years?

While Sasuke was out bleeding, finding ninja to send to the islands, fighting to preserve their world what was Naruto doing?

But even though Sasuke was mad that Naruto was just Naruto, not Naruto the General of a Thousand Legions he was pleased that at least Naruto was Naruto at all and not some delusion, or some wannabe like Shikamaru.

He was glad to see him, disappointed to see him alone, but glad to see him at all.

Suigetsu didn't take a second swing at the enemy ninja Naruto had captured, and given his use of Chidori Sasuke easily figured out that it must be Hatake Kotaro, the member of the Five who'd gotten away when they'd met on the high seas.

Talented, but cowardly. How like his former Sensei, Shikamaru.

Naruto smiled and said "Sasuke, you guys showed up early. I was trying to get some sleep when I heard all the ruckus."

"Well we decided a night attack would benefit us supremely," Karin said, emerging from the shadows. Sasuke had been aware of her presence but he hadn't been paying attention to her. She was sticking close to Juugo, though he was in an aggressive state he had enough control over himself to keep from harming Karin.

And to keep her from getting harmed.

Naruto smiled, "Well I guess it's a good thing, sooner the better. Hinata will be here soon, I hope."

"Where were you-" Sasuke began but Naruto raised an authoritative hand to silence him.

"Not now. Kotaro, I-"

"Yes now!" Sasuke roared, outraged that after all this time Naruto would just brush him aside as if his question-his _completely _valid question-meant nothing.

He reached out to grab the Hokage by the collar and Naruto reflexively raised his hand to block the movement, releasing Kotaro.

Kotaro's sword came in fast, not fast enough that Sasuke didn't see it, or couldn't stop it, but it was fast nonetheless.

And it wasn't aimed at Sasuke or Naruto . . .

The blade struck out towards Karin, Sasuke was too busy blocking it from himself, he didn't realize until it was too late what Kotaro was doing.

His eyes moved to Karin, he saw the blade closing in on her stomach, Juugo hadn't noticed it, Suigetsu might have but he wasn't moving.

Karin's life was entirely in her own hands, and Sasuke knew that at least in his eyes when it came to most things martial Karin had no real skill.

* * *

One of the Sound ninja closed in on Yomiko while the other went to assist Ryu.

The monstrosity came at Yomiko at a run as well, she swallowed a lump in her throat and tried to think of an escape.

Suddenly from out of the darkness came unexpected help, one of Kyoko's weasels leapt into the air and spun like a blade of death, slicing the Sound Shinobi's arm off as he drew it back to throw a kunai at Yomiko.

The man screamed in terror and pain, the abomination actually spun around looking at his master in confusion.

Continue the attack or fight this new foe? The weasel leapt around the injured ninja in an almost gleeful manner and the monster made the wrong decision.

He charged after the weasel-faster than the weasel was expecting by the look of it but still not fast enough the kill the nimble little thing-and Yomiko inhaled sharply and breathed flame at the mud around her feet.

It began to try and she was able to pull her feet free and walk on it well enough to leap onto normal road not far away.

But it was a hasty, awkward jump, and she tumbled rather than landed.

She drew a pair of kunai and threw them at the injured enemy ninja, one found a home in the man's throat the other in his chest; coupled with the severed arm suffered from the weasel it was all too much and he fell to the ground dead.

That seemed to decide for the monstrosity who his target was and he charged for Yomiko again.

It may have been deliberate but it was probably just accident, but a he did that the weasel tried to leap and spin again but the monster, rather than letting himself be attacked took the dead body of his former handler and threw it at the weasel.

Yomiko saw what was happening and tried to shout a warning but it was too late, the weasel cut easily through the body in a spray of blood and red mist, then the two kunai that Yomiko had used to finish the man sank into the weasel's own throat and chest.

The monster had picked up his handler with both hands, thrown him with one and somehow with the other both collected and threw the kunai.

He spun around the moment the weasel disappeared in a puff of smoke with an agonized wail, and charged for Yomiko.

Her fathers knives in hand she charged as well, the monster tried to strike her but was also careful not to let her cut him with those sharp blades.

Yomiko kicked with all her might and the monstrous opponent fell back grasping the knee cap she'd just broken.

If the near severing of his arm hadn't slowed him down at all she doubted a broken knee cap would do a lot, but it should give her the time she needed to finish him.

She focused as much wind chakra into her knives as she could, their blades lengthened as if she were wielding a pair of katanas underhanded.

She charged for the enemy and though his leg was still clearly damaged his arm shot out and grasped her left wrist.

The blade took off part of his finger and a bit of his knuckle, but the reptilian claw grasped tightly and Yomiko felt the sharp claws puncture the skin of her wrist.

In the same moment her other blade came in for his head and he moved it out of the way.

Not at all in the manner she'd expected however, he thrust his head forward, as if he meant to slam his forehead into her stomach, but she was too far for that.

Instead, letting her blade cut _inches _down through his shoulder into his torso the monstrous creature's face struck Yomiko's leg instead.

And he bit her.

He bit her like a vicious attack dog, she could feel his teeth breaking through her jumpsuit just as she'd felt his claws rupture her skin, then like a shark he thrashed his head about as if he meant to tare the flesh from her thigh.

Yomiko screamed and fell back at an awkward angle because though he'd let go of her leg he was still holding her wrist.

She screamed in agony but her eyes were focused on him, her mind working for a solution.

She wouldn't die like this, she was a Sarutobi, that meant something and it counted for a lot as far as she was concerned.

She kicked out viciously with her good leg, smashing the not-quite-man's nose, then she followed it up with a kick from her injured leg, his neck snapped backwards and she slammed her knife down on his arm, pinning it to the street as she tore her own arm free of his grasp and then retrieved her blade.

She meant to finish him off but in a flash a bad night got much worse.

Strike, strike, strike, she felt three rapid impacts on her left side, she spun around to face her foe only to feel five more rapid jabs on her back, then she swept her arm out to attack the person behind her only to feel more strikes on her front, now she could see the assailant.

A blur of white with long brown hair, Yomiko couldn't see her perfectly but she knew she was fighting Hyuga Shiroi now . . .

* * *

Naomasa shuddered as Ino-sensei finished administering her medical Jutsus to him.

"You should be okay," Ino said.

"Thanks," Nao said, "but what about Yomiko and Kyoko?"

"They're not here yet," Konohamaru said, "but that doesn't meant they won't get here. It's no use going out to look for them, you need to lead the Chuunin on the final exam."

Ino gave Nao a look, a sort of 'don't worry' look. It was odd because he didn't know Ino as well as Shikamaru-sensei or Temari-sensei, he hadn't spent much time working with her on the island.

And yet just from the look in her eyes Nao knew what she was conveying . . . maybe it was some sort of telepathic ability, after all that was what the Yamanaka clan was known for.

And Nao felt more at ease, even though his friends were in danger.

And Ino said "Listen, I was tending these wounds so I haven't delved into the psycho's brain yet, I don't know what the Chuunin-hopefuls will encounter when they go after the Daimyo, as per your plan Shikamaru, but-"

"Obviously you'll stay here with her while I take Ishida here to hunt down our missing comrades," Shikamaru-sensei said, _his _look told Ino that whoever else she was fooling she wasn't fooling him.

Yomiko was his student after all, Nao supposed it made sense that he wanted to go.

Besides, as Shikamaru-sensei added, "I _am _a sensor, I've got a better shot at finding them than Nao would have wandering alone."

"Why take Nao with you?" Konohamaru blurted, "Let him stay here with the hopefuls, I'll go with you."

"If I'm not here with Ino I want a seasoned Jounin of your caliber here in my place, Konohamaru," Shikamaru said, "Chouji's tough but even the best of us need backup, and that's why I'm taking Nao, I'll need backup myself and I've worked with Ishida a lot."

"But . . ." Konohamaru began but Shikamaru put a hand on his shoulder.

"Trust me, Yomiko's no more important to you than she is to me, I won't let anything happen to her. You just keep Ino protected for _however_ long she needs to find the information in Okatsu's brain."

Konohamaru straightened up and nodded, "All right then, you guys bring her back, she's practically the only family I've got left."

Nao nodded and Shikamaru led the way as they ran through the night to find their friends.

* * *

Shiroi laughed with glee; how could she not? This foe was no Hyuga, but she was a Sarutobi one of what, _two _left? Killing this girl would be a blow to Konoha, a blow to Nara Shikamaru, a blow to the rebels.

And she would definitely kill her, such as it was she'd sealed enough chakra points for a severely damaging blowout, a few more and they'd be in irreversible damage territory, not long after that they'd reach guaranteed fatality and Shiroi would finally use her lethal blast.

The abomination she'd inadvertently rescued was recovering fast, Shiroi wondered if that fantastic technology had been applied to very many of her spare bodies yet.

She knew that unless it'd happened while she was immersed in judgment or battle or hunting Sasuke it certainly hadn't happened to her real body yet.

But it looked . . . nifty.

She struck out a few times and then spotted Kurai's insects buzzing around her.

She knew what that meant-though Kurai was after the other rebel ninja his bugs had alerted them to he was still watching her back with a portion of his swarm and the bugs were now warning her that the enemy had help on the way.

It happened in a flash but Shiroi was ready for it.

Hijiri Hitomi fell from the sky breathing flames; she hit the ground between Shiroi and the experiment-One-six-eight if Shiroi wasn't mistaken-and her flames took shape, the shape of a bird of prey that flew for Shiroi lighting up the streets.

Hitomi sprang in its wake but Shiroi was ready for her, still sealing chakra points on Yomiko with one hand she swept her free hand out, a wave of wind chakra blowing the fiery bird back and a storm of chakra needles fired from her own chakra points as she'd made the sweep flew for Hijiri.

Most opponents would have been ignorant of it and suffered pain and chakra point damage, but Hijiri saw them and dodged most of them, her familiar intercepting the bulk.

And Hitomi sprang, Shiroi leapt back just out of her reach and smirked, "Not good enough, eh?"

"I killed you before." Hitomi growled.

"I was just playing then," Shiroi laughed, "now it's for real, and you're as good as dead!"

Shiroi swept Sarutobi's legs out from under her, with so many chakra point sealed the other girl was sluggish and wasn't able to dodge as easily as she might have otherwise.

Shiroi cut her own hand on a kunai and summoned, a pair of massive furry spiders the size of horses appeared.

The first went after Hitomi with speed that obviously surprised her, the second sprang for Yomiko, wrapping her up in spider-silk.

And Shiroi, free of distractions summoned again.

She had a major advantage, Hijiri and Sarutobi couldn't use _all _their chakra, not if they wanted to live.

She could use every last bit of this host body's chakra, open every gate, the damage the host body sustained didn't matter, not to Shiroi.

And she did begin opening gates, she wanted Hijiri to see her full fury, her full power in the _millisecond _before she died.

Their battle was rejoined, Shiroi's first strike was much too powerful, where she'd meant only to seal a chakra point on Hijiri's shoulder she'd instead sent the older woman spinning right into the waiting claw of the Prisoner One-Six-Eight.

He grabbed her by the neck with his reptilian left hand, his claws poised to puncture her neck.

Shiroi shouted, "Hold her but don't harm her, Hijiri Hitomi is _mine_!"

A strange light shone in the prisoner's eye, she saw him mouth the name, "Hijiri . . . Hitomi?"

Her own eyes narrowed and she realized her error at once.

But how? He-_it-_shouldn't even know his own name, let alone anyone else's.

The monster released Hitomi, she staggered forward, confused.

She turned to look at One-Six-Eight, Shiroi could almost _feel _rather than see the recognition dawning on her and though Hijiri wasn't facing her-much to her own peril-Shiroi could sort of imagine the mixture of horror and rage that must be crossing Hitomi's face.

She was almost giddy to see that familiar look, her heart almost skipped a beat as Hitomi started to turn.

How surprised she'd be when she saw how close Shiroi was, how delicious it'd be when Shiroi turned the look of anger into one of helpless resignation caused by the realization that death was imminent.

But Shiroi was met with a sight she hadn't expected, Hitomi looked at her with neither horror nor hatred.

Her eyes were shrouded by her goggles so Shiroi almost didn't realize it at first, but the woman's jaw, her mouth, they weren't turned in a scowl, and when Shiroi saw the tears roll down Hitomi's cheek she was hit by a wave of recognition.

That was sadness . . . _she-_Shiroi herself-used to do that sometimes . . .

Hitomi just looked pathetic and hopeless, she stood still, watching Shiroi but not moving.

She whispered, "Why? Why did you people do this?"

It was barely a whisper, Shiroi read her lips more than heard it, and yet the words . . .

She-_Shiroi-_had asked that same thing once . . . when? When? Long . . . long ago. But why?

_Why_?

She hated Hijiri Hitomi right then for any and every reason. She didn't know why but suddenly killing the woman was the only thing she could focus on, thoughts she'd been thinking were pushed from her mind, she didn't know why but somehow they weren't important anymore.

She sprang, not caring about showboating or fancy moves, all she cared about was ending Hijiri Hitomi's life with one strike.

Hitomi began to raise a defense but it was sluggish, she was still in shock.

Shiroi was knocked out of the air, in front of Hitomi stood Prisoner One-Six-Eight.

"Hijiri Hitomi . . . will take me to _her_." He growled.

Shiroi didn't know who the non-man was talking about but when her spider familiars charged in after Hitomi One-Six-Eight made his displeasure on the matter known, ripping the leg from one of the monstrous things and using it to club the other in the head, he roared a guttural shout of fury and then Shiroi saw what a moment ago she'd been eager for and now felt the slightest traces of fear at the sight of.

Hijiri Hitomi was looking at her, her goggles pulled down to rest around her neck.

Her mouth was curved in a scowl and her eyes were aflame with pure hatred.

She was angry, she was horrified, she was everything Shiroi had wanted to see at the moment when the other woman was helpless.

She was none of the things Shiroi wanted to see when she wasn't.

She sprang forward past the Prisoner, past the spiders, she punched Shiroi sharply in the stomach.

The younger woman barely felt the blow, but when Hitomi followed it up with a series of rapid strikes to the face Shiroi's body did take notice.

She kicked Hitomi hard in the back and rolled to her feet. She smiled a cruel smile, "All right, now _this _is more like it!"

More bugs, Kurai was trying to warn her about something but she didn't pay attention, she didn't care.

She ran for Hitomi, she punched with force that would turn a brick wall to dust twenty feet around the point of impact, a blow that would have taken Hijiri Hitomi's head clean off of her shoulders.

Hitomi disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sarutobi Yomiko leapt through that smoke, Shiroi could see the remains of the spider cocoon which Yomiko must have cut herself free of.

Yomiko's blade missed Shiroi's fist by several inches easily and yet in its wake bright red blood and searing pain.

The arm of Shiroi's body was gashed badly and Shiroi felt a very powerful, painful kick to her lower back.

"Go help with the spiders, this one's mine!" Hitomi snapped.

"But what about the monster?" Yomiko complained.

Hitomi scowled, "That's not a monster," she barked, "He's one of my best friends . . . and _you _will pay for whatever it is your people did to him," she added to Shiroi.

Shiroi smirked, "Well, this body might pay a bit . . . but I'm afraid the only tithe due is yours Hitomi, you owe me a body . . . I'll take yours as payment, then you'll know _all about _the _fun _things our people did to your friend."

And with a clash the time for talk was over, Hitomi charged at Shiroi and Shiroi sprang for Hitomi.

Hitomi had speed, Shiroi had strength _and _speed.

It would be over quickly . . .

**To Be Continued . . .**

Note: I want to thank everyone who reviewed the story up to now and everyone who rolled up their sleeves to try and guess the identity of the Prisoner. I know I didn't drop the name this chapter, but the next chapter will finally confirm the identity.


	46. Not Over Yet

**Chapter Forty Four**

Temari let Hijiri go over Yomiko and she sped on after Kyoko. it wasn't that she didn't care about Yomiko, she was just sure that Hijiri could handle the situation, she needed to help Kyoko.

She was almost there when the wave of insects shot out from the ground in front of her, she swerved the fan to the left and ran right into the bug master.

Kurai of course, dressed in the uniform of Orochimaru's Sound Five, he intercepted her in the air and threw several kunai, ripping her paper fan and causing it to tumble out of control.

Temari landed roughly on a rooftop, but she did land on her feet.

The bugs swarmed after her, Kurai didn't have to move much, they reacted to his will without any of the gestures a puppet master like Kankuro would need, or any of the hand seals most others would use.

So there was no indication of what they planned to do.

Temari couldn't just let them overwhelm her though, she needed to help Kyoko with whatever she was facing.

Kyoko was a Special Jounin now, maybe it was wrong to want to help her, she shouldn't need help anymore.

Still Temari wanted to offer it whenever she was capable of doing so.

At the moment however she was not terribly capable, not until Kurai was dealt with.

The bugs came and Temari pulled a pair of smaller paper fans from her side, she blasted holes in the swarm of bugs, and then she discovered that bugs weren't the only thing flying at her.

Kurai was throwing Kunai, in the darkness and surrounded by buzzing insects Temari had no way of really knowing when one would come and the first ripped through her left fan, the other slashed into her right shoulder.

She closed the ruined fan and used it to swat at any bugs that got close, the right she continued to use to clear the swarm.

It couldn't be endless, she just needed to outlast them.

More kunai came, Temari was lucky they didn't ruin her fan, instead one of them hit the ground in front of her, the other missed her by a hair.

Of course there was little reason for Kurai to miss in that manner, she had her suspicions and grabbed the kunai in front of her, throwing it behind her after the kunai that had sailed past.

The kunai she'd thrown exploded, the one she threw it at turned into Kurai, blocking the blast from himself with the help of several bugs.

It thinned them out a bit at least.

"Not a bad trick," Temari commented, blasting the clone with her fan.

It became a cloud of smoke and she spun on the real Kurai who'd leapt at her escorted by a fleet of insects.

Temari considered that a clone Kurai wouldn't have protected himself with insects, the bugs couldn't be immediately replenished, but a clone was totally expendable and there were a lot of ways to create a smoke cloud around yourself simulating the destruction of a shadow clone.

Which meant she'd turned her back on the real Kurai to face a clone; she had to give it to him the boy knew what he was doing.

However his downfall was that _she _knew what he was doing to, this kid was no Shikamaru.

She ducked low to avoid attacking the clone, instead she kicked backwards, hitting the real Kurai squarely in the crotch.

He doubled over and she used her other leg to kick him in the side of the head while her remaining fan blasted the bugs back with another wave of cutting air and destroyed the clone.

She fell on her back thanks to the move and slid down the roof several feet before she was able to focus her remaining chakra and stop moving.

Focusing chakra to the feet or hands is one thing, but when your whole body is falling one's first thought is to try to make their entire back stick, which Temari didn't have the chakra to manage so she wasted precious seconds on the unconscious attempt before realizing that just one hand would be enough to stop her slide.

She came to her feet too late to finish off Kurai, but from their brief scuffle she was still the better off.

"Old girl's still got some tricks, eh?" Kurai coughed.

"Whoa-ho, I am _not _old," Temari scowled. She was barely halfway through her thirties, she had decades before she'd tolerate being called "old" by Kurai or anyone else.

"What are you now, like fifty?" Kurai scoffed.

Temari rolled her eyes, she knew what he was doing; he was stalling her.

Wouldn't work, she swept her fan out, blasting most of the bugs and forcing him to cover his eyes while she leapt from the roof and ran for Kyoko's position.

Without insects Kurai was greatly hampered. Killing him would do no good because he'd just come back in a new body but leaving his body alone Kurai could be dealt with later, and his current body captured for questioning.

Besides Kyoko might still need help and together they could overpower her enemy then worry about Kurai. Temari rushed onward, after her former student.

* * *

Karin was like a rabbit about to be killed by a tiger, she just stood there afraid out of her mind.

Sasuke tried to move to stop Kotaro and then-

Suigetsu's sword slammed down on Kurai's sword, shattering the blade and Sasuke recognized that Karin's stance wasn't one of fear but of calm.

She was saying that she was confident enough that Kotaro's blade would never reach her that she felt no need to move.

Her mistake.

Kotaro smirked, still holding the shattered sword towards Karin the blade suddenly came to life with electricity.

It would have fried her but now Sasuke had time to act, he grasped the sword with his own hand and channeled the lightning chakra into an attack of his own, forming a Chidori in his hand Sasuke lashed out, meaning to take Kotaro's head clean off.

But the son of Hatake Kakashi leapt nimbly back, he regarded Karin and Suigetsu, then Naruto and Sasuke.

His eyes settled on Juugo and he said, "It seems I'm outnumbered and outclassed," He turned his gaze to Karin, "what a service I could do for the world if I killed you now, before it's too late."

Karin smirked and made a 'come try it' gesture, Sasuke felt just a little confused about that but Juugo put himself between Karin and Kotaro, there was no way the boy would get past Juu-

Kotaro almost disappeared, when Sasuke saw him again his broken sword was lodged in Juugo's chest, he shoved the monstrous man backwards, onto Karin pinning her.

He leapt to avoid Suigetsu's counter attack, Mist shinobi were rushing in from every corner to protect their Mizukage, Kotaro performed a summoning Jutsu and a giant serpent appeared, beneath his feet.

Suigetsu slammed his sword into the thing but the blade was deflected, the snake's scales were like armor.

Atop the snake Kotaro was building up a Chidori, Sasuke stood between Karin and the snake while Mist ninja tried to get her and the still breathing Juugo to safety.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the shoulder and pulled him away, at first Sasuke was outraged but when the snake's head snapped after him he realized that Naruto knew what he was doing.

It made sense now, Sasuke had thought it odd that Kotaro considered Karin any sort of threat. He'd attacked her first, threatened her, made some grand statement about the danger she posed to the world but really he was just trying to make Sasuke try to protect her.

Sasuke had a contract with the snakes himself, but he didn't doubt that Kotaro's minion would have swallowed him whole and transported him to the serpent lair, or perhaps even to Orochimaru's palace.

Sly student of Shikamaru's. Sasuke felt a bit of gratitude for Naruto, since when had _he _been capable of seeing through strategies?

Kotaro's serpent reared up, kunai and explosive tags were thrown at it, a few long range Jutsu crackled through the air.

Sasuke was pretty sure the snake was summoned just to capture him, and he didn't like to disappoint people.

He leapt into the air after the snake as if he meant to attack Kotaro.

The snake's head snapped towards him, its mouth opened, its fangs bared it struck light lightning but Sasuke struck _with _lightning.

He felt blinding pain but he slammed the Chidori into the roof of the snake's mouth, he felt it cut through the flesh and bone and he knew his hand had come out through the top of the snake's mouth.

He felt the dropping sensation as the snake's carcass fell, collapsing on top of a building from what Sasuke could see.

He was thrown clear and through a window, shattering it.

A woman screamed, he tried to get to his feet but his arm was throbbing and his left didn't support his weight.

He rose to his feet just to fall again and as he examined his injuries he saw their extent.

The arm he'd punched through the snake's mouth was obviously broken, it must have happened when he was thrown from the carcass.

And his right leg . . . well there was the matter of the ten inch fragment of fang lodged into his thigh.

He felt the poison beginning to take effect, he tried to stagger out of the window to the streets where friends could help him, he didn't want to risk being helpless in the home of a citizen of waves, not if they thought they could get something out of turning him in or killing him.

The woman was screaming hysterically, "It's a ninja! It's a ninja in our home! It's a ninja!"

But Sasuke didn't really hear any of it, he just collapsed near the window fighting for breath.

If he was right and Kotaro had summoned the snake to capture him and take him to Orochimaru then the poison would have been to paralyze him, nobody with Kotaro's intellect would risk a deadly venom on someone as important to Orochimaru as Sasuke.

But that left him with the trouble of where Kotaro was and whether or not these people living in the house would try to harm a helpless, paralyzed ninja.

If they were smart they'd leave him be just in case his side won the battle, but if Kotaro found him-and he was sure the trail would be easy to follow-he was in trouble.

"Inari! Inari, call someone! Don't go over there, he's a ninja!" The woman cried.

Sasuke saw a shadowy figure approach him and check his pulse, his eyes were growing hazy, he was drifting off.

He vaguely heard, "Calm down, I _know _this one."

Then he heard nothing, everything went black.

* * *

Yomiko felt her heart trying to climb out of her throat, the flow of blood in her ears made it hard to hear anything, all she knew as that the fight wasn't over yet.

Hitomi's monster friend seemed to be on their side, but now there were more enemies, a patrol of soldiers had found them and weren't hesitating to attack.

Yomiko was tired, she'd trained for hours before but she'd never truly had to _fight _for hours on the island, she hadn't fought like this since Konoha fell.

So she fought alongside a being that had been trying to kill her, she fought against soldiers and oh yes, one couldn't forget the giant spiders.

Why would it be spiders? What purpose did Shiroi have for using spiders?

Yomiko didn't suffer from arachnophobia, but she didn't like fighting unnaturally large eight legged furry spiders with fangs the size of her forearm.

And Hitomi-san's fight wasn't going well.

Yomiko had come to accept certain things, one of them was that Hitomi was just abnormally awesome; she figured it was why Nao liked her. She was strong, she could fight the toughest of enemies, she might back down but she didn't _lose_.

Yet Yomiko could tell she would. Shiroi had nothing to make her hold back, it wasn't her body and its loss meant nothing to her. She could push it beyond physical limits, Hitomi couldn't do the same with her own body.

That meant that either Yomiko needed to finish her foes and help Hitomi-because Hitomi wasn't going to be able to help her-or seize an opportunity to escape since this fight was so obviously lost.

And nobody would blame her, it wasn't as if _she _could do anything. Let the monster distract everyone and make a break for it, that would be the smart thing; the easy thing.

Then she'd live, Hitomi would die, Yomiko would be the one to marry Nao and have kids, live to be a hundred, do ten good deeds every day for the rest of that hundred year life and still at the end she'd have to tell her father and her ancestors why she'd abandoned a comrade.

But she didn't want to die either, her emotions were terribly conflicted.

Then help arrived . . . she didn't know what was happening at first, but suddenly someone was right next to her, a ball of flame illuminating the night showed it to be Naomasa, he seemed to be all patched up.

He threw a pair of kunai into the crowd, they expanded into shadow clones and began wreaking havoc in the throng of soldiers.

The monster wrestled with one of the spiders, its fangs were trying to penetrate the scaled reptilian arm the other spider circling round to get Hitomi.

Nao reached into his equipment pouch and threw a kunai at the spider advancing on Hitomi, it exploded-and explosive tag, not a clone-but it seemed only to irritate the arachnid.

The spider spun around and came after them, "Great job," Yomiko said dryly, "and here I thought you were here to help."

Nao ignored her, inhaling and breathing out a ball of fire that lit up the spider.

The spider should have been burnt alive but it wasn't. The flames caught, the spider was definitely alight, and in the flash of light Yomiko saw that Nao wasn't the only one who'd come to help her.

Black shadow tendrils struck out, one crawling up each of the spider's eight legs, Shikamaru-sensei was _somewhere._

Yomiko realized it was the same strategy as the boats; illuminate the target so the real power could take it out from a safe place. Shikamaru seemed to sort of fold the giant spider into a ball, though with what Jutsu Yomiko couldn't tell.

Then the soldiers started to seize up, some of them turned to run, others began to attack each other with their spears.

It was over quickly, Yomiko sighed with relief.

At least until she realized it wasn't actually over.

The monster and the spider were still fighting, she felt obligated to say, "Sensei, attack the spider not the person, he's an ally! Nao, where's Shikamaru-sensei?" She asked.

For that matter where was Nao? She felt a sinking feeling and knew he'd already gone to help Hitomi.

She turned to see that indeed both Nao and his remaining clone-one of the two having been taken out by the soldiers it seemed-were heading for Hitomi and Shiroi's fight which was definitely taking a bad turn.

If Nao was going to get involved Yomiko wanted to go too, but at the same time she recognized there wasn't much she could do, and Nao was probably being watched by Shikamaru-sensei.

She turned to help Hitomi's monster friend instead, he was still battling the spider.

* * *

Shiroi struck Hitomi several times, with more and more of her chakra points being sealed off it was getting harder for Hitomi to stay on top of her game.

It was almost funny. After all this time Naruto-sensei was supposed to come back but she hadn't seen him, and she'd even found Hara-now she knew why she couldn't find him before and it left her with a terrible sinking feeling about Miyuki.

By all accounts tonight should have been a happy night, the alliance would almost certainly win the battle, her sensei and one of her teammates had been found.

But if she survived the fight with Shiroi she'd be fairly surprised.

Far from giving up though the recognition that she could lose just seemed to make her angry.

She had to accept it but she didn't want to, and it hardly seemed fair.

The Sound Five could fight and die as many times as they wanted because their own bodies wouldn't suffer, instead the bodies of innocent prisoners would be sacrificed, how could any of them live with themselves? How could Orochimaru exist if his soul was that dark and twisted?

It made her mad that she'd die, leaving Saeki completely alone. It made her mad that even if she won this fight Shiroi wouldn't die, no matter what she did she'd face Shiroi again if she lived.

In that instant she resigned herself; she was fighting a war that couldn't be won.

For a terrible moment she stood as if she were waiting for Shiroi to end her life, and part of her wanted to do just that.

When Shiroi charged in however Hitomi quickly grabbed her arms, pulled her in close, slammed her forehead into Shiroi's, snapping the other woman's neck backwards.

Shiroi reeled but Hitomi didn't let her go, the evil ninja's counter attack was horrible, she kneed Hitomi three times in the stomach, and then slammed her own head into Hitomi's chest.

Hitomi staggered back, her last ounce of fight gone, Shiroi towered over her, light blue chakra in her hands, she came downward, Hitomi wanted to close her eyes and just accept death.

Then in a flash Naomasa stood between her and Shiroi, Shiroi's Jutsu tore right through him and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

A shadow clone, but the real Naomasa was behind Shiroi, he grabbed her neck with one arm and her glowing hand with the other, twisting it behind her back.

Shiroi wasn't the sort of person you wanted to hold onto like that, Nao must not have realized what Shiroi could and was likely just about to do.

Chakra shot from Shiroi's chakra points like needles, ripping into Naomasa, Hitomi mustered every last bit of energy, drew a kunai and slashed.

She didn't stab Shiroi, she just slashed her stomach, spilling its contents.

Shiroi screamed but Hitomi mustered just one more thrust, stabbing the woman in the neck, Shiroi's scream became a gurgle and they fell backwards.

Hitomi landed on Shiroi but Nao rolled out of the way and stayed on his feet.

"Why'd you do that?" Nao whispered, "we could have saved her host body."

"Didn't want to . . ." Hitomi mumbled.

In truth she just didn't want to see Naomasa get hurt so she'd ended the fight while she had the chance . . . but she'd never tell Nao that. It'd only encourage him.

She looked at Shiroi's host, if it'd been Miyuki she'd have been anything but surprised, it was just the sort of move she'd expect from a cow like Shiroi.

But it wasn't, as Shiroi's features faded the dead woman's face was completely alien to Hitomi, it was someone she'd never seen before.

And she felt a sick mixture of relief and disgust, relief because it wasn't Miyuki, disgust because she was relieved to have killed this woman instead of someone who mattered to her personally.

If human life meant so little to her how was she any different than Shiroi? She looked at Naomasa, who'd not only tried to save her but wanted to save the host as well.

She was too tired to say anything negative towards her savior but she thought, _You're just so perfect and moral, aren't you? Was I _ever _like you? If I was, when did I stop? Why? Why haven't you stopped by now? Don't you know wars are supposed to change people?_ It was okay for Hitomi to be a homicidal wreck because the war was to blame, wasn't it? So why wasn't Nao the same as her by now?

Nao helped her to her feet, she groaned, forcing herself to speak, "Help Yomiko and Hara." She managed.

Nao shook his head, "I'm helping you." He said firmly.

"Selfish brat, our friends-"

"Are taken care of, now let me take care of you, you equally selfish brat." Nao said.

Hitomi didn't know why, maybe she was just caught up in the moment, maybe she was so grateful to be alive that she lost all sense of reason, she held on to Naomasa, mostly to keep from falling over, and pressed her lips forcefully against his. It felt almost like a jolt ran through her body, she half thought he'd used a lightning Jutsu out of self defensive habit.

She kissed him, and then thankfully slipped out of consciousness, free of having to deal with the consequences of her action for at least a little while.

She even thought, optimistically, that she might not remember it when she woke up.

**To Be Continued**


	47. Things Unsaid

**Chapter Forty-Five**

Kotaro couldn't just let Sasuke go. When he was thrown from the snake, Kotaro saw it and after he recovered from his own fall he was after Uchiha.

Get Sasuke, nothing else mattered.

Get Orochimaru a new body so his mother would be free, so his father would be free.

He leapt towards the building that Sasuke had fallen into, and then he saw from the corner of his eye a form coming for him.

He turned his head and was hit square in the face, knocked down mid-leap. He hit a rooftop hard and lost his bearings.

He tried to regain his senses but before that could happen he saw that Uzumaki Naruto was standing before him.

"I don't want to have to kill you, but I can't let you kill Sasuke either. I know killing you won't stop you personally Kotaro, but I don't see any reason to waste the innocent life of your host either."

Kotaro scowled, "You'll just waste my parent's lives by protecting Uchiha!"

Kotaro was up and on the offensive, Uzumaki made the mistake of trying only to avoid Kotaro's attacks at first, losing the precious seconds when he could have turned Kotaro's offensive back and taken it for himself.

But Uzumaki was trying to reason with him and Kotaro wouldn't let that advantage go to waste.

He took a capsule of blood from his pack and grabbed a kunai as well. He threw the kunai and used it to distract from smashing the blood capsule against a scroll he produced from a breast pocket with his other hand.

The snake he summoned sprang for Naruto, biting down on his thigh.

Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke; Kotaro recognized that Uzumaki Naruto was a master of clones in addition to being the host of the nine-tailed fox, and Hokage of the leaf village.

He knew that Naruto's next attack could come from virtually any direction; it might even come from _every _direction.

He focused his chakra and let bolts of lightning radiate from his body outwards, damaging the roof he stood on, and making him impervious to attack while he looked for a foe.

That foe came, but it wasn't Naruto.

Juugo flew through the air and landed hard on the roof in front of Kotaro, punching a hole through it.

Kotaro staggered back as the roof collapsed, soon he was falling, forced to disable his Jutsu or risk harming the innocent inhabitants of the building.

However, he didn't exactly hit the floor, and he realized there were no inhabitants; he was falling into a warehouse out of reach of anything to stop or even slow the fall.

He saw Juugo falling just a few feet from him; the giant man-well more monster than man-hit the ground and rose to his feet in a split second. He rushed to where Kotaro was likely to land and looked ready to kill Kotaro before the ground could do it for him.

Kotaro decided to try his seal again, Naruto might have disabled it only temporarily.

He focused in the half-second before he'd reach Juugo and felt the burning sensation of the curse activating.

But it was too late; he was too close to the ground.

Juugo swiped out at him, Kotaro spun and let his legs slam into Juugo's bleeding chest sending the older ninja back with gasps of pain but a wild, furious look in his eyes as he rushed back.

Kotaro himself flipped so that he could land on his feet-unsuccessfully-and tumbled and rolled across the warehouse floor. He noted that while he hadn't splattered like a paper bag full of cherry flavored gelatin thrown from the same height, if he weren't using an avatar and being overcome by his curse he would have been knocked unconscious.

He took it as a valuable reminder that one's environment was just as much a weapon as any Jutsu if one knew how to use it; ignorance of one's surroundings could be fatal. While kicking Juugo hadn't really been the momentum killer he'd expected but it at least kept him from being slaughtered right away.

Juugo rushed at him now, and he saw the Mizukage come in through a shattered window, a great red mass following him.

Kotaro snarled, neither of these were his target but he wanted to stay and fight.

He felt like he had to kill them both. That would leave Sasuke more open to future capture. Juugo was badly injured; surely this was as good a time as any to make sure that neither of these two former servants of Orochimaru survived to fight him any longer.

_Or serve him knowingly or unknowingly in any capacity ever again, _Kotaro decided.

He was without a sword but not without any equipment, he quickly called up a shadow clone to hold off Juugo while he set his gaze squarely on the Mizukage, Suigetsu.

He didn't want the Mizukage surprising him by getting too close. Kotaro felt the rush of power from his cursed seal but he knew that if Suigetsu reached him before he was prepared he'd lose this host and his chance at Sasuke. He spotted the snake he'd summoned earlier making its way down through the hole in the roof, the serpent was some four meters long, but it'd take a while to arrive and help him.

Just as well, he'd count on it to restrain Juugo then he'd finish the berserker off with a well-placed Chidori.

As for Suigetsu, well Kotaro needed to get that sword out of his hands.

Kotaro pulled a pair of shuriken with harmless fake explosive tags attached to them and hurtled them at Suigetsu. The Mizukage deflected them with his sword, raising it up to block his field of vision.

Kotaro knew it was a trap; no swordsman would blind himself to his enemy, even for the split second that Suigetsu had used to move the sword in front of his face.

Kotaro didn't fall for it; instead he used a smoke bomb to cover the creation of two additional shadow clones that ran out of the cloud in an attempt to divert Suigetsu's attention.

Kotaro himself went belowground, preparing to use an old trick his dad had taught him with a bit of his own twist.

He reached into his equipment pouch for an explosive tag.

As soon as Suigetsu was in range Kotaro sprang out of the ground, using his father's Headhunter Jutsu, only he didn't just yank Suigetsu under, he also planted the explosive tag.

He leapt from the ground and got some distance between himself and the Mizukage, the tag he'd used was a very powerful one.

His snake was moving into position behind Juugo as well, everything was falling into place.

He hadn't captured Sasuke but he'd kill these two and that would be good enough to spare Lord Orochimaru's wrath.

Kotaro smirked, the ground beneath Suigetsu contorted, Suigetsu shouted and then the explosion breached the earth and vaporized him.

Kotaro's smirk disappeared. Suigetsu's red spirit-a sort of blood monster-tore one of his clones in half, in the split second before its death the clone looked back at Kotaro and Kotaro spun around, narrowly avoiding the Mizukage's sword.

"Not a bad trick kid, if I were some field Chuunin, maybe even a Jounin that would have been the end of me. But you've still got a long way to go before you're at my level, let alone above it." Suigetsu chuckled.

Kotaro scowled, his smoke cloud had obscured his vision the same as Suigetsu's but he'd had a clone out of the cloud even before he used it, that clone would have alerted him if Suigetsu had summoned a clone too.

The Mizukage's clone must have been in play from the start, but then how did Kotaro fail to notice the real one?

Suigetsu was now the one smirking, "Wondering how eh?"

Kotaro considered what he knew about Suigetsu and decided to make a guess, a bluff to hide the fact that he didn't really know.

"You were in a liquid form, in this darkened environment the only way I'd have noticed you would be if I stepped in you."

"Which you very nearly did," Suigetsu said with an impressed whistle, "heck if you're the result of Nara's training I might have to recruit him for myself, or just kill him outright."

Kotaro knew he shouldn't care but the threat against his Sensei made him bristle, the blood monster was moving in on him, the snake was moving in on Juugo.

Suigetsu raised his sword for another swing and Kotaro felt the slight pull that meant that Orochimaru was telling him to abandon the body and return.

_No_, Kotaro thought, _I won't abandon this body. Like Naruto said, there's no need for this innocent host to be killed, and there's no reason to leave these two to terrorize any more citizens._

Kotaro sprang for Suigetsu before the man could swing his blade. Kotaro head-butted Suigetsu in the stomach and kneed him in the crotch.

The older man turned into a splash of water, Kotaro didn't know or care if that was Suigetsu evading him or if it'd been a water clone, he tossed an explosive tag into the puddle to make sure it was out of the fight for good.

This wasn't over, not by a long shot. Kotaro still had some fight left in him, and even though he doubted he could successfully kill these two-and also suspected that was why Orochimaru was calling him back-he could hold them in place and give the others a better chance of rescuing Naruto.

Besides which every moment he fought them was a moment that he and his shadow clones could gather information on them, try to understand their fighting styles so that next time Kotaro could quickly dispatch these two.

He suspected that what Suigetsu said was true, he wasn't at their level just yet. But if he understood them and their technique he wouldn't have to be; he'd just need to take them at a time and place of his own choosing.

* * *

Naruto distracted Kotaro with a clone but his true body had gone straight for Sasuke.

Looking down at his unconscious friend Naruto couldn't help but chuckle in spite of the dire situation.

"We've both gotten older, but you look like you've aged a decade Sasuke . . . these past four years haven't been easy on you . . . sorry for that." Naruto said, lifting his friend over his shoulder.

"Naruto, what's going on out there?" Inari asked.

Naruto smiled, Inari had always been one of the few friends of the Leaf village in Wave during the war; when Waves was conquered by Water for allying with Fire there had been a sort of understandable resentment among the populace but from what Naruto understood that never carried over to his old friend.

"Our ninja are just securing the city," The exiled Hokage told his old friend, "stay indoors and there shouldn't be any danger."

"That would be more convincing if Sasuke hadn't just flown in through my window, Naruto." Inari said dryly.

"That was a freak accident." Naruto said with what he hoped was a disarming smile.

"Freak accidents have a way of turning innocent bystanders like me into statistics."

"Trust me," Naruto said.

Inari just shrugged, "Get out of here, Sasuke looks like he needs a medic bad and I won't even be able to _try _to get my wife to stop screaming until the apartment is empty of all ninja."

Naruto smiled and nodded, holding Sasuke securely he leapt from the broken window down to the street.

Karin rushed over but Naruto didn't want her getting too close.

"I don't think he's capable of biting you right now. It's paralysis poison, his mouth's shut tight." Naruto told her.

Karin scowled, "Let me see him."

"Where would Sakura-chan be?" Naruto demanded.

"Let _me _see him!" Karin insisted.

"What matters right now is Sasuke's life," Naruto said gazing levelly into Karin's eyes, "are you confident that you can extract the poison better than she can without Sasuke being able to bite you?"

Karin hesitated, and then said, "If she's anywhere she'll be at the Daimyo's mansion, they should be getting ready to drag him out by his mustache by now."

Naruto nodded and set off for the place at full speed, glad to be away from the Mist ninja.

They had a negative air about them. Naruto was sure he'd better talk to Shikamaru and Gaara about it, but he didn't trust them, Karin in particular.

He didn't want her to be the one treating Sasuke, not if there were any other reasonable option.

* * *

Ryu's heart was pounding in his chest and from what he understood of the cursed that was probably only egging Kyoko on.

He ducked, dodged, avoided and tried not to die, but Kyoko wasn't going to be taking prisoners, that much was obvious.

He'd tried reasoning with her and he'd tried restraining her.

The cold realization that he'd have to kill her or be killed by her was at the edge of his conscious mind but he tried to keep it from taking hold.

He didn't want to die, and he didn't want her to die.

They needed to be there for Yukio together, the three of them had survived the death of their first Sensei, they'd survived a war that had practically crippled Sunagakure's ninja force, and together the three of them could do anything.

But he seemed to be the only one who realized it. Yukio was out for himself, for power, he didn't care what working for Orochimaru entailed. Right or wrong at least he'd picked a winning side, Kyoko was firmly against Orochimaru even though she'd been given one of his seals.

Weren't the cursed seals supposed to drain the subject of their will until service to Orochimaru was all they could think of? Kyoko seemed pretty willful right then.

Ryu had come to accept four years ago that nothing was ever going to be perfect, the world was never going to be totally right.

But the thought of killing Kyoko . . . or of dying himself . . . of outright betraying Yukio . . .

It wasn't fair.

Life itself wasn't fair; Ryu knew that, he'd known it since his family died. Now he was fighting to keep his second family from suffering the same fate.

He wished Temari-sensei were there, she'd have been able to stop Kyoko, and she'd listen to reason, she'd understand why they needed to serve Orochimaru, she was a mother after all she had to be capable of thinking about the future even if Kyoko obviously couldn't.

It had to end.

"Kyoko, please, I'm begging you," Ryu said, "You have to stop!"

Kyoko ignored him, she just kept attacking.

She struck, and then struck, Ryu's arm fell away, and a gap in his defenses opened up then-

She punched him in the chest, he felt the wind fly out of him and he tumbled backwards.

She lunged forward, raising her fists into the air and bringing them down hard on his chest, he coughed and tried to rise but she slammed her forehead into his, knocking his head back onto the street.

He coughed up blood, he tried to get up but he couldn't seem to force Kyoko off him.

She raised her fist one more time then she was yanked back and off Ryu.

"We tried it your way, Ryu." Yukio said, "Just try to remember the good times we had with her."

"Yukio, _no_!" Both Ryu and _Temari_-_sensei _shouted.

Ryu was sure he heard her voice.

He saw her running at them, her fan was nowhere to be seen otherwise she'd surely have used it to stop Yukio.

Yukio threw Kyoko to the ground roughly and stomped down on her chest, holding her in place though she kicked and clawed at him he easily avoided her.

He looked at Temari-sensei, Ryu couldn't see his face, didn't know what expression he wore.

Regret? Or triumph? Were his eyes apologizing for what had to be done, saying 'if only there were another way, Sensei' or were they laughing, saying 'you've failed another student, Temari.'

He had a blade of sand raised ready to decapitate Kyoko . . . and that was all that mattered to Ryu.

In that instant he made up his mind.

He couldn't let Yukio be lost and destroyed.

Not even if Yukio was the one trying to destroy himself.

His body was moving before his brain understood the act.

The dramatic thing to do would be to place himself between Kyoko and the blade. It would also be the suicidal thing to do, and Ryu wasn't suicidal. Yukio wasn't looking at Kyoko, he wouldn't see Ryu in time to stop the blade if Ryu did try to put himself between them and Ryu had to admit to himself that he wasn't so sure Yukio would bother to try to stop the sword if he did notice.

Kyoko seemed to have the presence of mind to draw a kunai and try to stab at Yukio's leg. Yukio's foot struck out, kicking Kyoko hand away then stomping on her chest again before she could get free.

Ryu noticed that she still had the kunai but it didn't matter right then. Yukio's sword would reach her neck before her knife reached his calf, and Ryu was already moving.

He had the briefest of moments to say to himself, 'At least the four of us are together again,' and then he body checked Yukio, knocking the larger man off of Kyoko, his sand sword disintegrating from his hand as he put his hands out to stop his fall.

He turned to Kyoko and saw something in her eyes.

Recognition, gratitude . . . and horror. He felt the kunai slam into his stomach and he fell to the ground looking at Kyoko and Yukio.

Their quarrel was forgotten for one moment, Kyoko's curse was receding, and she fell to the ground next to him, shaking her head.

Yukio stood over him, staring in disbelief.

Ryu smiled grimly, a minute ago Kyoko had been almost desperate to kill him . . . everything had changed now. Maybe it was when she saw him save her from Yukio. The thing that hadn't changed though was the velocity and force behind the blade she was already striking with.

Temari arrived, scraping her knees as she hit the ground next to him, she didn't even seem to care that Yukio, an enemy, was standing right next to her.

She put ad hand on Ryu's cheek and swore.

Kyoko was shaking her head whispering "no" over and over again, Yukio was being a lot quicker about returning to his senses though and as Ryu lay on the ground watching it all he just wanted to shout at him. At all of them.

All he could do was whisper, "Yukio . . . they're . . . our . . . family."

Yukio seemed like he might attack Kyoko or Temari, but instead he just grabbed his head and roared in fury, Ryu felt his eyes getting heavy, Temari slapped him but he didn't really feel it.

"Don't!" Temari shouted, and he barely heard it, "Don't you let go, damn it! I haven't had a chance to slap you upside the head for putting on a Sound uniform! Ryu! Damn it Ryu!"

There was a sob in her voice but Ryu's mind barely registered it.

Ryu wanted to say so much to all three of them, wanted to tell Yukio so many things, not the least of which being to stop following Orochimaru and stop obsessing over his shortcomings and accept that he really was one of the most powerful ninja in the world. He wanted to tell him that only he could unlock his true potential, to tell him that all Orochimaru wanted to do was use him, not help him and hope that he understood.

He wanted to tell Temari-sensei that she'd been like a mother to him, even though she would just see it as him calling her and old woman that was how he'd felt. He wanted to apologize for not telling her where he was going four years ago, but that he hadn't had the time; he'd been promoted to Chuunin that made him responsible for Yukio, he'd been doing his duty to his village and to his friend. He wanted her to know she'd been a good teacher.

To Kyoko . . . he wanted to tell her that she'd become just as strong as Yukio, the both of them were marvelous Shinobi. wanted to tell her that she wasn't responsible, he should have dodged the knife, he'd seen that she had it, had seen her move to attack Yukio with it and somehow in the moment he never realized it'd hit him instead. It wasn't her fault, it was his.

And he didn't want her to be sad . . . because maybe now he'd get to see his parents, heck all their parents.

If he did he'd tell them everything they'd been through even though he was sure they'd been watching the whole time. He'd wait for them, his spiritual brother and sister, and their Sensei and maybe in some other world, some other existence or some other incarnation the four of them would be together again.

But he didn't say anything. His eyes just got heavy, his breathing just slowed until even a single breath was agonizing . . . and everything went black.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	48. Orochimaru Unconcerned

**Chapter Forty-Six**

The door opened slowly and Kabuto stood before his emperor.

Or empress, depending on one's interpretation. Lord Orochimaru inhabited a woman's body after all; perhaps he would be more appropriately referred to one.

Kabuto doubted Lord Orochimaru would be remotely amused. Given that he himself retained a bit of Orochimaru's old self and body he felt that he was a good judge of what his master would and would not like.

Orochimaru would not like the news.

"Waves is doomed." Kabuto said, a little surprised how such a simple sentence was so difficult to force from his lips.

"Already? I expected this news tomorrow evening." Orochimaru yawned.

"They pushed and launched a night attack, from what I understand so far it looks like they're only attacking us with Ninja, so their main army will be fully rested and prepared for battle whenever they do arrive, which probably will be in the morning or afternoon tomorrow." Kabuto admitted.

"Our enemies are conniving little creatures aren't they?" Orochimaru sighed, "What about our marines, our own ninja?"

"They set fire to the fleet, they were near enough to land that many of the sailors and marines are likely to make it back to shore, but as I understand it the rebels blacked out the city lamp by lamp, the common soldiers are fighting blind and expecting to face other soldiers and Samurai we've had several instances of our squads attacking one another, of entire platoons being wiped out by a few ninja. The experiments seem to be the only measure that had any success but there were far too few of them to change the tide."

"My fleet burned to death?" Orochimaru looked irritated.

"Well that's how it looks, sire."

"Are you telling me those crews didn't know how to put out the fires, or did Konoha come up with some sot of unquenchable flame?"

"We don't have details yet. Lord, the army from Wind won't be able to reach Waves in time and the army from Earth folded far too quickly."

"There was treachery there," Orochimaru said sagely, "The traitor will be found out and they will suffer for their misdeed."

"Yes well the matter is that the capital is wide open to attack. With just a few fortresses and outposts between their armies and this capital we may fall under siege within a week. I'm preparing to order our people in Waves to evacuate for Wind, perhaps you sire should consider moving the bigger operations to Earth."

"Don't be a fool," Orochimaru laughed, "I just told you there was treachery in Iwagakure, until Hikaru sniffs it out that place cannot be trusted."

"Well then what will you do?"

"Send as many of my followers as I can and let attrition do the rebels in, of course. How large was the force that escaped Konoha? How large can the force approaching possibly be? What do they have besides a few heroes past their prime and a few hundred fools?"

Kabuto smiled slightly, "They've managed to consistently defeat the Five, only Kotaro has avoided repeated host loss and his loyalty is questionable."

"It most certainly is not," Orochimaru laughed again, "as long as I have this body and his father he is completely my servant."

"And what if he succeeds in bringing you Sasuke-kun?" Kabuto asked, "You won't really give up Kakashi and Anko as well as Kotaro will you? Is the Sharingan enough of an asset to justify releasing three Jounin level ninja who will no doubt join the rebels the moment they're free of us?"

"They'll all be contributing members of society, our people will see to that."

"Lord, have you considered the possibility that you might lose? When Naruto used the power of the fox during Konoha's fall he nearly defeated us. It was the most supreme luck that allowed us to win the war."

"Wrong." Orochimaru said harshly, "He nearly defeated _you_, I was already restored to Anko-chan's body, had our forces not won I could easily have remained in Konoha to take Sasuke-kun when the time was right. Our enemies have bested you once already but no one has defeated me."

The Emperor leaned back in his throne and smiled sinisterly, "Naruto does not matter. As long as we and the Five can wage war without personal risk we have a major advantage. If we slay just one of their heroes it is a devastating blow to their morale, but for my followers the threat to their god will force them to throw their lives down for my sake."

Kabuto frowned, "Okatsu may not leave Waves alive."

"Then she becomes our first martyr. Waves will be a defeat around which our people can rally." Orochimaru laughed softly, "Between our little pets, our ninja, and our armies the enemy would have a lot of trouble reaching us, Kabuto. Attrition will be our greatest ally, even if they win every battle leading them here the forces we have in the labyrinth alone likely outnumber them ten to one. Besides, how will they win the war, Kabuto? The only way to stop us is to kill us, and we cannot die."

Kabuto nodded, but thought to himself that while he wasn't so sure about Orochimaru he could personally die rather easily, all it would take was a ninja stronger than him to attack him and win any fight they might have.

"What about Okatsu?" Kabuto asked, "She knows a great deal about our operations, our procedures, the labyrinth and our means of control for the Five. If Konoha gets this knowledge, if _Shikamaru _gets this knowledge . . ."

"Shikamaru is a clever one, but compared to me he is no great intellect, I have gone beyond mere man, beyond mortality."

"He defeated an immortal before." Kabuto warned.

"Yes . . . he did, didn't he? But I don't imagine that man was a god, was he? Nor do I believe he possessed any percentage of the massive intellect I do. Make no mistake Kabuto, you and I are both Nara Shikamaru's intellectual equals. In the larger picture Waves means nothing, their victory there will do little to wrestle control of the rest of the world from me."

"You're more concerned with the possibility of rebellion in Earth?" Kabuto realized.

"Clever child," Orochimaru chuckled and Kabuto felt an odd sort of resentment being called a child, "you realize that that is the larger threat. Earth is thick with my people, my followers, Iwa is full of my zealots so _how _could their ninja have abandoned the front like that? Why do _I _not know the cause? Did not one of my followers survive to tell the tale, were they all found out? Without their aid I will have to expend a greater force to burn out Lightning."

"We knew the day would come when Lightning would strike," Kabuto said, "Why did we leave them be for so long?"

"To encourage Konoha and Suna to strike, of course." Orochimaru said, "I expected this attack a year ago, but they're lucky; if everything had been in place they would never have taken Waves. Such as it is they'll all die just the same but at least tomorrow they can feel like they've accomplished something."

Kabuto nodded, "So you won't go Waves yourself?"

"No, Kabuto, I will get some sleep. Anko-chan's body does require a bit of it from time to time. In the morning I will compose a letter congratulating Naruto-kun for taking that fine city, and inviting his surrender."

"And this letter would also be to negotiate Okatsu's release?" Kabuto wondered.

"Nonsense, she'll be dead by then. Who do we have to deliver it, any prisoners that Naruto might have called 'friend' once upon a time? Perhaps someone close to his advisors?"

"I don't think we have anyone, actually, at least nobody we haven't already used." Kabuto shrugged.

"It never hurts to double check, Kabuto." Orochimaru yawned and stood up from the throne.

"Lord, what about Okatsu?"

"Why do you keep bringing that up? Is she dear to you?" Orochimaru sounded surprised.

"No, Lord," Kabuto said honestly, "it's just . . . she knows so much, and if they have anyone who can extract that from her through torture or worse-"

"Okatsu housed my mind for a time, Kabuto . . . I have taken steps; her vital knowledge is safe from our enemies . . . anyone who tries to take it by force would be in for a horrible surprise."

Kabuto relaxed a bit.

The last thing he wanted was for Naruto to learn some of the things he'd done . . . things Okatsu had either witnessed or helped with.

Okatsu also knew how the Five were controlled, how to reverse the effects of the mist drugs, she knew a great deal about the enhancement procedures that had been done, Okatsu was, in essence, a big get for the enemy.

If they could extract her information . . .

* * *

Ino was sometimes amazed at the layouts of the human mind.

Ino's consciousness was within Okatsu's consciousness, and Okatsu was hiding things from her.

This was a Jutsu she'd created with the help of her father prior to Konoha's fall and with the help of her husband she'd perfected it into what she was certain would make an adequate interrogation Jutsu.

She simply stepped into the mind of her victim and found the information, asking the subconscious where it was as if she were the proper owner.

The subconscious would then give her the information she wanted as simply as if she were remembering it herself.

But Okatsu was different, Ino found herself standing in a sort of darkness, alone at first though as time went on various images passed her by; memories or perhaps impressions of people, it wouldn't matter until she found the one that was relevant.

Okatsu herself.

Ino recognized some faces, the old Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, several Cloud ninja, memories of old friends perhaps?

She recognized the Raikage, the one she knew from Kumogakure now and the one who had led the village when she was younger. So many people, was this everyone Okatsu had ever met? Where was Okatsu herself?

Ino almost didn't recognize her when she saw her, but the moment her mind wondered about Okatsu her eyes seemed pulled.

She spotted two people, one of them was a girl dressed in rags and chained. She wore a red oni mask over her face and sat holding her head in her hands.

Somehow Ino knew that was Okatsu . . .

The other person was a woman dressed in the clothes of an Iwagakure ninja, she looked strong and powerful, every mental image kept clear of her and somehow Ino knew that was _also _Okatsu . . .

Ino approached, and both Okatsu and Okatsu's heads snapped towards her; this was clearly not right. The other images stayed away, but here this stranger boldly approached.

Ino wasn't in the mood to play games though, she was in a rush, she needed the information and she knew it was Okatsu she'd have to ask.

"Okatsu, my friend!" Ino cried.

"No, no, no, don't have friends . . . hurts everyone . . ." The younger one moaned, lightly tapping on her head and sobbing, "make it go away, make it leave . . ."

"Get out of here," The other Okatsu snarled, "You're not one of my students and you're not my master; I have no time for you."

Ino folded her arms and shifted her weight to one leg, even though really as a mental projection she didn't have weight . . . or a leg, "Um . . . actually, I uh, I'm . . ." She hesitated then said, "I'm Shiroi's mother . . . I'm looking for her."

"Make it leave . . ." The younger one sobbed, the other Okatsu yanked on her chains and kicked her roughly in the back.

"Silence you foul thing! And you; Shiroi never mentioned her mother . . . must by why I didn't recognize you."

"Of course." Ino smiled, "I heard my daughter was with the Daimyo of the Land of Waves . . . where would he be?"

"Don't ask, please don't ask . . . please just go away . . ." the smaller Okatsu begged from behind her mask, holding handfuls of her own hair and curling into a ball.

Ino had no love for Okatsu, but the mental projection was starting to concern her . . . if Okatsu were insane-and it was becoming very easy to believe she was-the younger mind might be dangerous; it might represent the moment or a moment when Okatsu was pushed over the edge, it might interpret Ino as something that would cause it pain and lash out at her.

In Okatsu's mind Ino might be vulnerable to such an attack; this was uncharted territory, the Jutsu had never worked this way before after all.

Ino backed away from the smaller Okatsu but the older one laughed, "The Daimyo must be in his palace, that's where he always is the old fool."

"Right, but I went there," Ino said, "and he wasn't there."

"Then he might be in the bunker beneath the palace, the entrance is in the kitchen." Okatsu told her, tapping her chin.

"Don't ask questions, please don't ask questions!" The younger Okatsu wailed and she was rewarded with a vicious kick.

"Sounds dangerous," Ino said, "what sort of defense would be there; you know, to keep my daughter safe?"

"Two and a half score Samurai guards, full armor and ready for mayhem." The normal Okatsu said breezily, "but Shiroi wouldn't be in any danger anyway, because of the Lord's Jutsu."

"Oh? You mean the one that lets her use an avatar . . . but doesn't that have a weakness?" Ino smiled.

Okatsu laughed, "Well it's not like the enemy will figure it out."

"Shiroi told me all about it." Ino lied.

"She told you about-" Okatsu began but she was interrupted.

"No!" Okatsu's younger self screamed, leaping at Ino, "It's not me! It's not me!"

The other Okatsu yanked hard on her chain and stomped on her throat, still the teenage girl screamed, "Get out! Go away! It's not me!"

Ino staggered backwards and felt something grab her, she squirmed and turned her head; it was one of the other mental images, this one was of Shiroi.

"Hmm . . ." Okatsu said over the screams of her other mind, "I don't see a family resemblance . . . are you sure she's your daughter?"

"I uh . . . she takes after her father," Ino smiled disarmingly.

Okatsu sneered, "Mothers and daughters should look at least a bit alike, as if I didn't know the truth you oh so recognizable fool . . . but maybe you look more alike on the inside . . ."

Ino squired as a blade seemed to materialize in Okatsu's hand.

Ino had no idea what it would do to her to be stabbed or in any way harmed inside of Okatsu's mind, this wasn't how the Jutsu was supposed to work at all.

The younger Okatsu pulled viciously on her own chain, knocking the larger one off of her feet, "You're doomed now! It won't stop now, get out!"

"What's the weakness? What might hurt Shiroi?" Ino demanded, unable to move anyway and therefore eager to keep the older Okatsu talking while she tried to get free.

"No! Once it tells you it can't let you go! It's not me, it doesn't _have _to stay here!" The masked Okatsu screamed.

And then Ino realized the chains weren't there to represent any sort of imprisonment of Okatsu's mind, they were a Jutsu . . .

They were a binding Jutsu keeping Okatsu bound to . . . not herself, it couldn't be herself.

To what?

The other Okatsu smiled, "I'll tell you _everything_, but you won't get to tell a soul . . . you won't even have your own after this."

The real Okatsu began to claw her way away from Ino, pulling the other form back only a pace before it yanked on the chains, it turned to Ino, it's face no longer that of Okatsu but instead her skin seemed to peel away revealing a face that looked far more like the mask the real Okatsu wore.

Ino had a moment where she realized quite to her distress that she was in over her head.

And then the monster Okatsu rushed her, dragging the screaming sobbing teenager in its wake, it enveloped her and Ino's world went black.

* * *

From her makeshift clinic in the Daimyo's dining hall Sakura was more than a little surprised when _Naruto _brought _Sasuke _to her.

She finished tying the bandage she'd been working on then rushed to Sasuke, whom Naruto had set on the dining room table. The other medics would handle everyone else but when she could help it she didn't trust anyone but herself or Tsunade when it came to Sasuke.

"How is he, what happened?" She asked, though she wanted to ask Naruto a lot of other things.

"Bit by a snake, poisoned, I think it's paralysis, he's still breathing but he hasn't moved or anything." Naruto said.

Sakura smacked the back of his head-she wasn't using her chakra to give her strength so he still _had _the back of his head afterwards-and said, "Back off then and let me work."

It didn't take long-though it took a great deal of focus-to get the poison out of Sasuke.

Sakura decided to save it, one never knew when potent venom like that might come in handy.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Sasuke's eyes slowly opened and he sat up, looking around in confusion.

"You're safe Sasuke-kun . . . and look, you even brought Naruto here." Sakura smiled.

Then Konohamaru came running into the room, "Sakura-sama, Shikamaru and Temari are back, his team is really messed up.

Sasuke snorted, Sakura shoved him back down onto the table and said "When it rains it pours. Send them in, Konohamaru, I'll do what I can."

Then Chouji barged in, "Ino!" The large man shouted.

"She's not here, I thought she was with you." Sakura said, raising an eyebrow in concern for her longtime friend.

"No, there's something wrong with Ino!" Chouji said.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Sorry this is so much later than I usually post . . . I got distracted . . . but anyway hope you all enjoyed this chapter.


	49. Team X

**Chapter Forty-Seven**

Sakura reached Ino's side, the other woman was wiping blood from her nose and laughing a shaky, uneasy laugh.

"I told you I'm fine, Chouji!" Ino said, "I got a little freaked out but I was lucky; and I got the information."

"What information? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

Ino blinked and shouted, "Naruto? You're back? I mean I knew you would be but-"

"Ino!" Chouji said urgently, "You were screaming, then you collapsed; that's not "fine" that's the complete opposite!"

Sakura put a hand against Ino's head, her childhood friend's brow was burning but at least her nose bleed seemed to have stopped.

Naruto crouched next to the two of them and said "What's going on, Ino? What happened?"

Ino tilted her head towards Okatsu's still body. "I was in her mind with my interrogation Jutsu, it's a screwed up place. I got the information I needed before her mind attacked me; there was something in there with her though, I mean I thought it was her but it could have been a piece of Orochimaru maybe, or one of his chakra minions."

Sakura tensed, "And what happened to you?"

"It toyed with me, I think," Ino said, "Made me think it didn't realize what I was, gave me information as bait to lure me in and get me to drop my guard; and when I did it tried to possess me . . . or kill me."

Just as Sakura had thought, and she wouldn't trust Ino until her friend could give her a good reason as to why such a possession hadn't worked; if Sakura were a part of Orochimaru lingering in that woman's brain she'd want to play it off as if she were still in there instead of hiding in Ino.

Ino held up a tag that she'd kept in her flak jacket's breast pocket; "I don't think it expected me to be carrying this. Shikamaru said we should all have one, now I'm glad I listened . . . who knows what that thing would have done to me."

Naruto frowned and put his hand against Okatsu's neck, confirming what Sakura had, with all her expertise suspected just from seeing it from the corner of her eye.

"I hope you got the information you needed Ino," Naruto said, "Because I don't think anyone's ever going to get any answers out of this woman again."

"Good riddance," Ino said coldly, "not to be mean but she had a screwed up mind, I don't think there would have ever been any saving her. Anyway I don't think I'll have a decent night's sleep for a while."

Sakura smiled weakly, still not quite willing to trust Ino but willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment she said "Are you sure it was Okatsu's mind, not some Genjutsu? Maybe this wasn't her real body."

"If it weren't it would've gone back to it's original form by now." Chouji said.

"As for the Genjutsu thing," Ino said, "That's exactly what I thought it was at first; it was _way _different than the way things usually go, I was in like a dream world. In fact I think that's exactly where I was, and it was a horrible place. Still as unworthy as she is of any sort of sympathy I think, just from having spent a little while there, that she's better off dead . . . I mean spending a lifetime trapped in a mind like that would be enough to make dismemberment seem merciful. "

"Okay, that's a bit much." Sakura scolded.

"Or not enough." Ino scoffed.

"We should lock her up." Naruto said.

"The corpse?" Sakura asked.

"Remember she works with Kabuto who was also able to pose pretty convincingly as a dead body." Naruto said.

"Right, that's true and we can't be too careful. Unless we _are _going to go with the whole dismemberment thing I mentioned it's probably a good idea to keep even her dead body locked up until we can make her final arrangements." Ino said.

Sakura nodded slowly, "All right, Chouji do you think you could take care of moving her to a guarded place? I want to give Ino a quick look over. The attack may only have been mental but your nose was bleeding, you must have suffered something physical too and I want to be sure it's not serious."

"While she's busy with that," Naruto said, "Go ahead and tell me what information you got out of Orochimaru's former left hand crackpot."

Ino laughed, "I got the location of the Daimyo's bunker and the number of Samurai guarding it; It's not much, I pretty much just got to ask her three questions and in the end she could have been lying because it seems like that piece of Orochimaru was prepared for me or something . . . you know . . . the funny thing is that once that . . . _thing _got aggressive the real Okatsu actually tried to hold it back, tried to warn me even but I was too thick to notice until it was too late."

"Well she's dead now," Sakura said, "Before you get all choked up it could just be that that thing wanted you and she didn't want to let it go; maybe she couldn't live without it; so when it left her for you she died and it was destroyed by that holy tag. She might have been more interested in keeping herself alive than keeping you safe, Ino."

"Whatever her motivation I thought Chakra can't be destroyed." Naruto frowned, "Are you sure that thing's gone?"

There was quiet for a moment, then Ino said "Maybe it wasn't destroyed . . . maybe it did get into my head and I just don't know it . . . do you guys think maybe I should be locked up too?"

Sakura exchanged a look with Naruto, Ino had just said exactly what Sakura was thinking and admitting to it didn't really make Sakura trust her any more than she had two seconds ago. If _she _were a piece of Orochimaru hiding in Ino's psyche trying to play innocent was exactly what she would do too.

But the Hokage put a hand on Ino's shoulder. Whatever heartwarming speech Sakura might have expected from Naruto, all he said was "Nah."

* * *

Yomiko had to take a few breaths when they reached the castle. Hitomi's unconscious body was taken by a pair of medics and Hara was dragged off with them, though most of his injuries had disappeared.

It left the three young Special Jounin to themselves just outside the door of the palace's makeshift infirmary as Shikamaru and Temari had broken off to listen to some report from cousin Konohamaru and Rock Lee.

Kyoko was very quiet, neither she nor Temari had had any comment when Yomiko and Shikamaru's team found them and the dead body of their former teammate Ryu.

Yomiko knew how hard it must have been for Kyoko to fight Ryu, let alone apparently kill him, what she didn't know was what to say about it.

Even Nao who was usually pretty good about finding the right thing to say to cheer someone up seemed at a loss and Yomiko supposed that in a situation like this saying nothing was probably the only thing she could do even if it didn't seem quite like the right thing to do.

Nao was quiet too and for a different reason; Hitomi was unconscious and he was probably worried, after all now that she'd gone ahead and _kissed _him it sure would be bad luck for him if she died.

Great luck for Yomiko who was experiencing an odd sort of irritation with the older woman; she recognized that when she had the time to be angry at Hitomi she'd be furious. Hijiri Hitomi had pretended to be on her side, pretended to reject Naomasa and then in the end turned out to be a lying tramp.

It was an odd feeling; she was too busy to be upset about the betrayal _yet_, but she was fairly confident that when things settled down she'd be all sorts of pissed.

Unfortunately in the relative safety of this secured area things were settling down while the medics went over them and Yomiko's temper was starting to rise. How would she handle this?

Shikamaru put a hand on her shoulder and nodded to Naomasa, "I'm going with you, Kyoko is benched."

"No!" Kyoko protested, the first thing she'd said since they found her.

Temari however stood up and said "I want you with me Kyoko, I asked Shikamaru to take your place."

"What, that makes it better?" Kyoko demanded, "My own sensei thinks I'm not-"

"She's coming." Naomasa said simply, "I'm sorry Sensei, but this is my squad, I'm the third exam's proctor; you shouldn't be on this mission you have bigger fish to fry."

Shikamaru frowned, "She's not in a stable enough mental condition to protect the lives of these children."

"Kyoko you need to take a moment to rest, collect yourself." Temari said.

"She needs to know that we still have faith in her, and I do." Naomasa countered

Kyoko seemed about to say something else but luckily Sakura and Ino approached them and the man jogging along with them shut everyone up.

Except Yomiko of course, she managed to point and mumble something nonsensical.

She always was the most eloquent of her friends after all.

Uzumaki Naruto . . .

Haruno Sakura gave them a moment to recover from the shock before saying "Ino here has gotten the location and strength of the enemy; the Genin teams are assembled and ready to go."

Yomiko nodded and Naomasa said, "Then the three of us are ready to lead them in. Has the nature of the mission changed at all?"

"The mission is the same; capture the Daimyo and bring him back alive; subdue his forces however you can." Sakura said.

"There are about fifty armed Samurai in the bunker, no ninja that we know about, these Samurai should be considered on the elite end for this county which should mean a few Chuunin and Jounin equivalents so obviously we don't expect the teams to eradicate the resistance." Ino said.

"Eighteen Chuunin-level Genin against more than double their number in Samurai?" Yomiko frowned, "That sounds like a high risk mission."

"It is, so was this." Shikamaru said, "Chuunin need to be capable of getting a target out of such a guarded place. We'll send a couple teams of Jounin in with them-"

"I'll go." Naruto said.

Yomiko gawked.

"You can't go alone, Naruto," Shikamaru said, "I'll go too."

"Unnecessary," A new voice said, "I will go along with Naruto." Hyuga Neji said, "My Byakugan will be an asset in the bunker, and the Hokage should have a proper escort."

"That is correct," Rock Lee added, standing beside Neji, "It is only proper that that escort be made up of members of the Konoha Twelve."

Shikamaru said. "All right then, Neji, Lee, Naruto and Sakura go in there as Team X, you three lead the Chuunin candidates in and the rest of us will keep this perimeter. By sunrise I expect to see the Daimyo brought out of . . ."

Shikamaru-sensei trailed off and in spite of everything he laughed.

"What's so funny?" Ino asked.

"I just realized," Shikamaru-sensei said, "I don't give the orders anymore."

Naruto smirked and cracked his knuckles, "Right then . . . all that stuff he said, come on Sakura-chan let's rock this!"

"Rock this?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.

Naruto smiled broadly, "Okay examiners, if I understand the nature of the mission correctly Team X will head in and create a distraction, the Genin teams-how many are there?"

"Six, Hokage-sama." Naomasa said.

"Right, so we'll have six Jounin go in with them, one apiece to observe and more importantly to keep them alive, probably shouldn't be their usual Sensei but an objective observer. It's up to the Genin to actually get the Daimyo, are we in agreement?"

"It sounds good," Shikamaru said, "So who's going with the kids?"

"The three of us," Naomasa said, "I think Konohamaru would want to come. Honestly Sensei I don't think there's a Jounin alive who wouldn't want to come along once they know that the Hokage is going to be there."

"Right, but we need our top people for this," Shikamaru said, "We also need them up top, so it's tricky. We don't have a thousand names to choose from in fact we don't have a dozen, too many people are still out there fighting, or like Hijiri, too injured to participate."

Yomiko frowned, supposing that that must be what Lee and Konohamaru had told Shikamaru-sensei.

"Isn't the obvious answer you and me?" Temari-san asked.

"Shikamaru needs to be up here coordinating everything and in that kind of close range you'd be at a disadvantage, Temari." Naruto guessed, "But don't worry. Get those Genin ready, I know the perfect two ninja to lead the other teams and they'll be here soon."

Shikamaru-sensei nodded and said "All right then, you heard the Hokage."

Everyone jumped into action, and for the moment Yomiko's irritation disappeared. She was going to be on a mission sort of kind of with the Hokage and like a quarter of the Konoha Twelve, irritation was an impossible emotion right then.

* * *

The Daimyo of the land of waves sat in his bunker drumming his fingers together.

His Samurai were arrayed throughout his bunker beneath his palace. They were prepared to fight to the death; their armor on, their weapons ready to be drawn but he personally was just trying to think of something to do to pass the time while he waited for the ninja to kindly get the heck out of his land.

He might have passed the time with his concubines or, if he were desperate enough his wife, but there hadn't been time to evacuate any of them, and in fact some of his samurai hadn't made it either; the head count had been just forty three.

Forty three men stood between him and the cowardly ninja, even with seven individuals missing he didn't feel any real threat. The old days of the ninja had ended, the emperor protected the people now and the samurai were even more powerful than ninja so of course there was no danger.

Or so he kept telling himself; he wasn't a complete idiot, he _remembered _the old days of the ninja, he remembered what just a single team of ninja could do.

That was why he wanted a distraction, sitting around waiting to die was torture and every second dragged on.

He drummed his fingers together and kept his eyes on the door to his chamber.

He waited for the good news that his lands were free of conflict, that the ninja aggressors had been defeated and that the glorious Emperor's men had succeeded in the defense of his land.

He waited . . .

* * *

Naruto stood at the place Neji had confirmed as the entrance to the Daimyo's bunker.

A crowd had gathered, everyone was excited to see the Hokage go in there and drag the Daimyo out kicking and screaming even though they knew that it was going to be one of the Chuunin Exam teams who'd do it.

The Genin were all nervous not because they'd be going in under the observation of Jounin not their Sensei, but because half of them were technically leaf teams, they were no doubt reluctant to screw up in from of their Hokage and the others were probably determined not to embarrass their respective village in front of the head ninja of Leaf.

Naruto was a little embarrassed to see all the excited faces of both his ninja and the few from Sand and Mist who were also there. Everyone was watching him and he really hadn't done anything yet; which he guessed was probably _why _they were watching him.

They wanted to know that he'd been worth the wait, wanted to know that he'd be capable of bringing them the victory they all so richly deserved.

And he wanted to be that guy, he wanted to just walk into that bunker and take down every Samurai himself, drag the Daimyo out by his ear and let everyone have a round of drinks on him.

But this wasn't a typical mission; the battle was as good as over; from what Shikamaru said the city was almost completely secured by sunrise the Land of Waves would be more or less free again, getting the Daimyo was not really essential.

This was for the Genin to prove that they were ready to be Chuunin, to lead teams, to be officers in the field. The liberation could conclude with or without the Daimyo. But if the man stood up and publicly declared his country's independence again it'd be the first step in proving that the Emperor's hold on the world wasn't concrete, that he could not only be thrown down but that the people would be ready for just such an event.

That was what made this battle so important. The people of Lightning and Water were still loyal to themselves, but the people of Wind, Fire and Earth had all been subjugated; Waves would be the test.

Had four years under the Empire's heel been too long? Had Naruto taken too long?

"So where are these two Jounin you mentioned?" Sakura asked.

"They'll be here in another second or-" Naruto was saying when suddenly Tenten and Hinata came barging into the room.

"Naruto!" Tenten gawked.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried, throwing herself at him.

He wrapped his arms around her, more than a little surprised at just how good it felt just to see her.

Heck if his men weren't watching him he might even break down into tears . . . but that was not the sort of ultra manly thing a Hokage did.

But Hinata did wipe away the one tear that Naruto told himself was still totally manly as she kissed him.

It was a pretty long kiss, and Tenten was probably doing the same to Neji, as Naruto understood it the two had been separated for a while.

They parted and Naruto said "I want to hear about everything that happened in Lightning, Hinata. And not just the military stuff, I wanna know what your day to day was like, how your sister's doing, how the food was. But first, we need two more impartial Jounin to observe these teams of Chuunin hopefuls, and I knew just the two to take. You up for it?"

Hinata smiled and Shikamaru's student Yomiko laughed, "That's _half _the Konoha Twelve! This'll be a cakewalk!"

Naruto turned to the assembled Genin and Jounin and said "Well then, let's get to it. Team X front and center, get ready to cause the distraction so these bright eyed Genin can slip in and get the job done!"

A cheer ran through the room, the Genin were all looking nervous because now they were feeling a bit of what Naruto was feeling.

Everyone's eyes were on them, everyone wanted to know that the were up to it, that they could handle the task set before them.

Naruto had every confidence that these kids would pass their test.

And as he held Hinata he somehow just knew that he would too. The world would be set right in the end.

He was back, his old posse was being rounded up and much like the Daimyo hiding in his bunker Orochimaru's time to answer for his crimes was rapidly approaching.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	50. Capture

**Chapter Forty-Eight**

The door was opened with a blast, an enormous toad lumbered into the tight confines of the bunker's hallway, five Samurai drew their swords and charged only to be engulfed in smoke as the giant toad disappeared.

But these men were the elite, they knew better than to be tricked by smoke bombs and dismissed familiars; they struck out in the smog, one of them cutting into something soft and presuming it to be flesh he struck again.

Soon however they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers as nearly a hundred identical ninja charged into the hallway; the men had time to scream for help and see it arrive only because their lives weren't the objective of the ninja; dozens of what they presumed to be clones slipped past them and continued down the hall, breaking off here and there to search side corridors and rooms for the Daimyo.

Many of them found more Samurai, but at least one group was bound to find the man himself.

* * *

Kotaro's eyes snapped open and he found himself back in the palace he'd never actually left.

Kasumi was nearby along with Shiroi. There were some medic-nin scurrying over them and he noticed that Kurai and Yukio were still in battle.

"Orders," Kasumi said softly, "are to abandon Waves. The fight there is lost."

"Are Kurai and Yukio going to be called back?" Kotaro asked, "Wouldn't it make more sense to-"

"I dunno." Kasumi said lightly, "I'm going to sleep."

Kotaro sat up and shook his head slowly.

Shiroi laughed bitterly, Kotaro raised an eyebrow at her; "What is it?" He asked.

"Okatsu-sensei . . . I wanted to be the one to kill her."

"After you beat any one of us to it you mean," Kotaro said dismissingly, then suddenly he made the connection and asked, "Wait . . . did Kasumi-"

"No." Shiroi scoffed, "But she failed to protect her so she was captured and now she's as good as dead. Since we're not being sent in to rescue her Kasumi was saying something about us being a joke; that we've failed every time we've met opposition."

"She did, did she?" Kotaro asked.

"I may have added a bit, but yeah." Shiroi scowled, looking down at the unconscious form of her husband with what could almost be considered contempt. "But then it's all a joke; all a game. None of what we do matters, even if we die we don't stay dead . . . we don't have any real purpose beyond bringing Lord Orochimaru a new body. Tell ya, Taro . . . standing here what makes me angriest is I lost bodies in all this and so far I don't think Kurai has . . . so he'll think he's better than me . . . Orochimaru will think so too . . . Konoha will think so . . . I bet even _you _think so."

Kotaro knew what Shiroi was hoping he'd say; that she was a valuable part of the team and that she was every bit as skilled as her husband she'd just been dealt a worse hand.

If he were a proper team leader he might have, if he cared about or believed in their cause and wanted her to strive for it with her utmost he might have.

"I think you're _sick_." Kotaro said.

Shiroi laughed and straightened her shoulders, "Very funny. But then this whole night was a joke; just like us."

Kotaro said very coldly, "If there's a joke here it isn't funny."

"We failed." Shiroi scowled.

The young man kept his face impassive; "We failed all right; we failed the people in Waves, and by extension we failed the whole world _because _of our actions in Waves. Losing Okatsu is a side note to the fact that the entire navy was brutalized, many of the innocent people kept in our temples will be or have already _been _purged to hide our Lord's _scientific research _from his enemies; we lost good men and women tonight."

"Because we're failures; I get it and you know what? Whatever." Shiroi scoffed. "So the leaf bugs sank our battleships and killed our people; we'll get 'em back but in the meantime they're laughing at us!"

Kotaro scowled now, "Laughing at _you, _you mean."

"_Us_, we all failed!" Shiroi hissed.

"Yes we did but you don't care about that; you're mad because _you _failed, you don't care that the soldiers died or the ships were sunk, you don't care that Kurai and Yukio might still have a chance to turn things around and rescue Okatsu, or even secure Uchiha-no what makes you mad is that you're not there right now."

"You're damn right!" Shiroi exploded, "I want to be there killing those bastards! They're messing up our playground and kicking over our sandcastles; we were gods to those bumpkins and then when the time came we got laughed at by a bunch of has-been Jounin, the people won't ever take us seriously again and our enemies will think we're nothing but a bunch of failures! We let Okatsu get captured and we can't even fulfill our _sole _purpose and capture a man so full of himself that all we _should _need to do to catch him is put a mirror in a cage and watch him run in to make out with it! No need to shut the cage, he'll do that himself for privacy!"

Kotaro shook his head, he suspected he might genuinely hate Shiroi.

"What makes you mad is the blow to your own ego, you're no less full of yourself than Uchiha Sasuke. You're mad because the "bumpkins" saw you as a god and then you lost a fight; a fight you yourself moments earlier admitted to not taking seriously. Does it bother you that the "bumpkins" who looked to you, _you _for protection and guidance as their goddess died in those icy cold waters, or in the burning fires? Do you care how many children no older than your own will never know their fathers or mothers?"

"Just fathers, Lord Orochimaru doesn't let women in the military." Shiroi said, but she sounded unsure.

"And yet we both know there were kunoichi on that battlefield," Kotaro said, carefully not mentioning the whole 'on both sides' part of his argument feeling that if there was still any hope for Shiroi she'd need to make that connection herself.

Whether she did or not she did nod, conceding the point and replied, "It's not my fault; I didn't start the war."

Kotaro shook his head, which was starting to feel foggy so it was harder to grasp onto the point he had wanted to make but he forced himself to fight and somehow in the deepest corner of his head he found the will to resist as he told her; "We support the man who did. We do the bidding of the man responsible for the deaths tonight, for the suffering of the people. You stand here ashamed for failing him, but unfazed by your failure to _them_ and it's them you should feel responsible to."

"You who've slaughtered entire families to spread fear of the Emperor, made the people his slave just as much as any of us, and you did it with a smile. You Shiroi, who should more keenly understand the helplessness of slavery since you _experienced _it your entire life."

"Until Orochimaru freed me." Shiroi spat, "That's why I'm sad for failing him and not for failing all the nameless nobodies who never mattered and died in a battle that much like them: didn't matter!"

"Orochimaru didn't _free _you, Kabuto didn't _free _you. They changed your brand from one on your skin to one on your soul. You're their property, you'll do anything they tell you to even fight your clan and your old friends, what if you met Tomoko on the field of battle?"

Shiroi seemed confused, "Who is that?"

Kotaro had to admit he had no idea . . . somehow the name just felt like it had a significant connection to Shiroi . . .

They were both quiet for a moment, and Kotaro said, "Give it a week and we won't remember any of this argument . . ." He was saying it to vocalize his realization as much as he was saying it to Shiroi.

He looked at her and said, "Shiroi we failed the people because we should have kept them from being enslaved by Orochimaru, we failed them because as Shinobi of Konoha you and I had a job to keep the Land of Fire and even its otherwise defenseless allies safe from exactly this kind of scum . . . instead we're its slaves, neither one of us can get free and so we do unspeakable, hateful things. Konoha lit the fires on the ship, Mist sank the bulk of the navy, but we allowed the madman the power to make those actions necessary in the eyes of our once comrades. Whether or not they were _right _is just one of the questions anyone asks about war itself; is it ever right . . .

"But while you sit here angry because you got knocked out of the fight and your husband didn't I want you to remember that to those hosts tonight's action was anything but a game, to them it was life and death. Maybe they didn't have much of a life, but it was a life, they deserved better than to be purged or to die having their bodies used to wage war on the very people trying to rescue them . . . them _and _us."

"So what?" Shiroi demanded petulantly, "You've got a point, right?"

Kotaro shook his head slowly and told her "We're all slaves, Shiroi, and we all serve the same master. We both do it for our families but you Shiroi . . . you enjoy it. Your defection to protect your son from suffering the curse of the Hyuga branch only landed him in a different sort of slavery, and the sick part is you handed him over to the enemy, you _gave _them the means to control you and deluded yourself into thinking you were free when deep down you know you're not."

Shiroi's eyes were blazing, she said "You don't know anything! You've never carried a human life inside you and known it was going to be doomed the moment you gave birth to it! I did what I had to and I made the right decision no matter what you think!"

Kotaro stood up and headed for the door, "I just think it's sad because I think you realize completely what you've done . . . and it's sick because I think the reason you do it with a smile is to pretend you don't, to act like everything's okay because the full gravity of it all scares you just as much as it does me and you don't know how to deal with it."

He opened the door and stood just about to exit and leave her to her business not really knowing whether or not she was listening "Worst of all you forced your husband and your son to follow your selfish path and now they're trapped the same as you. You're telling yourself you were right and everyone else is trash because you know you were wrong; and you think that makes you trash. If I were a good leader I might tell you that in the end, deep down . . . you're not."

"But you won't because you're not a good leader?" Shiroi asked.

She asked, she didn't accuse.

Kotaro just left the room.

* * *

Sasuke opened his eyes and sat up, he was on a dining room table and Sakura stood over him, a knife in one hand so that he thought for a moment he was having some weird dream that she was eating him.

Then he recognized that it wasn't a dream, then he recognized the knife was probably being used for surgical purposes.

"Sakura-chan . . ." He mumbled.

"Sasuke-kun." She smiled.

They looked at each other for a moment and then she said "You seem to be conscious, but don't move too much. I have to see to the others, I'll be back when I can spare the time."

Sasuke nodded, feeling rather deflated.

It made sense that he wasn't her highest priority, and he appreciated that even so she was keeping her eye on him.

And she wasn't the only one.

Shikamaru was standing near the doorway, out of the way of the medics and patients and not blocking the door.

Sasuke, ignoring Sakura's instructions hopped off the table and felt his legs buckle under him.

He stood up straight and walked over to Shikamaru and asked, "Is the battle over?"

"Almost." Shikamaru said calmly, not taking his eyes off the activity in the room, barely acknowledging Sasuke.

"Then why are you here? You're not injured." Sasuke said with disdain.

Shikamaru didn't say anything for perhaps a whole minute, then he said, "You and I are never going to be friends; there were times when we were close to being at least on good terms but neither of us is ever going to be close. I can live with that."

"So can I." Sasuke said with a scoff.

Shikamaru continued, "I don't know the names of half the people in this room, most of the ones I do know I don't know well. I had a hand in sending them into the one-sided battle that resulted in their injury and for far too many of their friends, family, comrades, it resulted in death. I asked them to do the improbable; take a fortified city in the dark before dawn and for all intents and purposes they succeeded despite several nasty surprises."

Shikamaru looked at Sasuke, for the first time taking his eyes off the makeshift clinic, "In the morning when the ships arrive and the armies disembark I'll ask them to march to the next battle without a proper rest; more of them will die or be injured. Men and women I don't know, Uchiha, whom I'll never know, I'll ask that they die for me, a failed tactician. For Naruto, a deposed general. For Konoha, a destroyed city. I'll ask them to die without knowing any of them, will even have to sacrifice some of them most likely . . . and I can live with that too, Uchiha. I'm standing here watching our medics at work to remind myself that just because I can live with it doesn't make it right, doesn't mean nobody's suffering for it."

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru but turned and looked at the room.

Shikamaru was right, they'd never be friends really . . . but he couldn't grudge the man for at least wanting to respect the sacrifices everyone was making.

Sasuke forced himself to take a moment to do the same thing; after all for whatever reason everyone was there now . . .

* * *

Naomasa watched the youths fighting against hardened Samurai opponents and he did his best not to interfere.

This was their fight, he'd sized up the two enemies and deemed the three would-be Chuunin should be able to handle them, in the confined hallway the Samurai were at the disadvantage, they fought with their shorter blades which gave them an even shorter range.

The Chuunin candidates on the other hand had a ranged specialist, an in-training medic, and the third member was smart enough to keep his distance.

The Samurai had no ranged attack, they just charged and struck, the young Shinobi were nimble and kept themselves from getting hurt.

Nao watched them with careful eyes, he was ready to intercede to save their lives but otherwise he had to let them handle the mission.

And it was hard not to participate, but it was also heartening to see how effective the group was.

It gave Nao hope for the ninja future, not that these were children, they were a year younger than him at the most; he himself was still just a kid, as Hitomi kept reminding him . . .

But these soon-to-be Chuunin were a hope for the war, these three and the others like them were successfully fighting off more experienced opponents, they had survived the night fight in the city, and for all intents and purposes once this bunker fell the city itself would have been captured by a ninja force numbering in the hundreds, not thousands.

They had destroyed the empire's navy, they'd taken its most important loyal port, the door to the invasion of the Lands of Sound, the invasion of the Empire's heartland was open.

* * *

The door exploded inward, a large blue ape charged into the room taking one of the Daimyo's remaining guards off his feet and tossing him across the room.

The other raised his katana but was blasted backwards by a strong gust of wind.

A trio of young ninja entered the room and the Daimyo stood up.

He frowned at the trio of youths, and then at the fourth man to enter.

"Daimyo, we demand your immediate surrender." One of the young ninja said, the sound of exhaustion and excitement in his voice, "Stand down and accept justice."

The Daimyo laughed softly to himself. He looked up at them, "So you've captured this city . . . you've captured me. Allow me to die with my honor intact."

The three looked confused but the older ninja stepped forward, "I don't think so, Daimyo. You're playing at old glories, but this is a new age. You won't find honor at the end of your own blade, you'll only find it in the protection and preservation of your people."

The daimyo stared at the man, "Who are you to pretend to know honor?"

"I am Sarutobi Konohamaru, and my clan is synonymous with the word." The man said firmly, "You will surrender now and be taken before our leaders."

The Daimyo stood up and nodded.

He walked out from behind the desk and approached the group, his hands shaking and his heart racing.

He passed the man who'd been thrown across the room and under the guise of helping the injured man to his feet instead took the man's katana and spun around to charge the ninja.

The summoned ape grabbed the man and held him tightly, the sword clattered to the ground.

"Close enough, good job you three." Konohamaru said, "Lets lead him out."

And just like that the Daimyo was in enemy custody and his disgrace was complete.

He had lost his city in a single night, and the emperor had done nothing. There had been no divine intervention, the city was captured by mortal men and-to the Daimyo's disgust, women as well-just as Konohagakure four years ago had fallen to a mortal army led by a mortal man.

The Daimyo closed his eyes as the monster ape led him out of the bunker down the halls where his honor guard had been spilled.

And he had done nothing but cower and wait for rescue from a being that in truth had no way of lending aid.

Perhaps what this ninja had said was correct, perhaps in the end his honor would be found in the protection and preservation of his people, his _own _people.

He had a lot to consider, but keenly on his mind was the fact that being subservient to the empire was not going to benefit him at the moment.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**AN: **This is last week's late update, the update for this week is shortly to follow and the bonus chapter for reaching three hundred reviews will follow . . . well, when it's finished. I've been extremely busy but let me just take the time now to thank you all for your comments, feedback, suggestions and encouragement and even though between this and the next chapter I don't have a bonus ready yet, I still appreciate the time those who've reviewed spent doing so and I will in turn make sure I find the time to complete the next chapters of this story and have the bonus ready to be posted as soon as I can.


	51. Memory

**Chapter Forty-Nine**

Karin smiled wickedly as she entered the infirmary, "Ah, Sasuke-kun, you're well enough to open your mouth now."

"I'm well enough." Sasuke said firmly, shoving her hand away.

Sakura watched the other woman with disdain, she did not want to deal with Karin personally but her healing abilities could be most valuable.

"Since Sasuke-kun seems to be all right for now, would you mind lending a hand with some of the more serious cases?" Sakura asked.

"Oh I'd love to . . . too bad I'm so busy." She said, filling Sakura with greater resentment, but she laughed and said, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Look at her, so upset, it's clear she needs me. Can you spare me for the time being, Mizukage-sama?"

Suigetsu smirked, "Sure, why not. Sasuke, you feel free to rest up; things are pretty much finished."

"So the Daimyo's secured then?" Sasuke asked.

"The what now?" Suigetsu yawned, "I dunno, but the streets are empty."

Sakura shook her head, she didn't like the Mist ninja, and she didn't like that Sasuke was one of them now.

More than that she had to admit she didn't like not really understanding _why _Sasuke was one of them, why he felt like he had to go down that path.

She wanted to find time to talk to him alone. She wanted to find time to talk to Naruto too, where had he gone and what had he done? Why hadn't he let her in on any of it?

She wondered where Shikamaru had wandered off to, perhaps the battle really was over and he was with Naruto now talking to the Daimyo.

Whatever the case Sakura knew she couldn't talk to Sasuke alone while Karin was hanging around, she also knew she needed a rest anyway so she said, "Karin-san, could you show some of the others your expertise?"

"Of course, if I'm going to save the day I might as well let others see how I do it, it's not like you can copy me or anything though."

"So I'll leave you in charge here."

"Hmm?"

"I'm going to take a break. My chakra is almost gone and I need to take a quick breather. But you've got this well in hand, don't you?"

Karin scoffed and waved a hand, "I suppose so; it's not that difficult really."

"Good. Sasuke, why don't you come with me?" Sakura asked.

Karin looked irritated at that but Sasuke didn't seem to notice and he nodded, "I suppose you want to see Naruto."

"Yes," Sakura said, though she didn't intend to go right away.

Sasuke nodded and Karin seemed to simmer slightly at that. The two left the makeshift infirmary together and Sakura noted a slight smirk on Suigetsu's face.

Sakura frowned at Sasuke once they were clear of the room and asked him, "Sasuke-kun . . . do you plan to stay with the Mist village?"

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, "I'm technically a Mist Shinobi now; it's not like there's a Konohagakure anymore."

"But after the war, when we retake it?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke shrugged, "After the war I'll go wherever ends up being more beneficial to myself and my clan."

Sakura wondered if that was some sort of a challenge. By mentioning his clan was he implying that she was less worthy of being his wife and helping him restore the Uchiha clan than Karin was?

Karin was sort of pretty, Sakura supposed, and she was clearly a skilled Shinobi but . . . well Sakura didn't feel like she had too much to fear from Karin on the romantic battlefield.

But then Karin did seem pretty confident . . .

With so many injured Sakura should've had bigger fish to fry, she _did _have bigger fish to fry but being low on chakra had been no lie and talking to Sasuke while she caught her breath-or at least spending time with him-just seemed right to her.

It seemed fair even; didn't she deserve to spend a bit of time with him?

"Sasuke-kun, now that Naruto is back don't you think you should rejoin us?"

"Sakura, if anything me being away from Naruto is for the best. Orochimaru still wants me because I have the last pair of Sharingan in the world, but he'll want Naruto too just because he's Naruto; because of the power he has and the threat he'll represent. If Naruto and I were traveling together Orochimaru would throw everything he had at the Konoha group, he'd obliterate us through sheer numbers."

"I think the three of us together could withstand anything." Sakura said.

Sasuke didn't answer, he just too k a seat next to her when she finally found a bench to sit down on and catch her breath.

He said, "You saved me you know."

"Naruto saved you." Sakura said, "You were almost captured."

"Right . . . Naruto . . ." Sasuke said absently, "Still you did the actual medical work, Sakura-chan. I feel almost as good as new."

"It's no problem . . . I'll always be there for you, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said shyly.

Shyly? Her heart skipped a beat as she realized she was probably blushing and trying to hide it wouldn't do her any good since Sasuke was more likely to notice her suspicious behavior than the color of her cheeks.

Still she had to fight the urge to cover her face.

* * *

The Daimyo tried to hide his face as he was forced to the ground in front of Naruto.

Naruto didn't recognize the usefulness of the gesture; he didn't care what the Daimyo looked like-provided that was the real Daimyo-all he cared about was bringing the evening's violence to a conclusion.

Shikamaru stood besides him once they were out of the bunker; Naruto said "It looks like Konohamaru's team found him first."

"Not my team, Naruto-senpai," Konohamaru said, "I was just their observer. Every action was taken by the Chuunin themselves."

"And Chuunin they are," Naruto smiled, "I think this counts as a passing grade. Shikamaru and I will talk to the Kazekage and the Mizukage in the morning about distributing promotions and we'll talk to all the Jounin who went with the teams to get their own assessments. Did we suffer any losses?"

"Well nobody from your team went down, boss." Konohamaru laughed and Naruto couldn't help but smirk.

"It's hard to kill legends." Shikamaru said, but without the same mirth as Konohamaru and Naruto exhibited.

"None of the Chuunin squadrons suffered losses," Shikamaru's student Yomiko said, "Even though they were expecting us the speed of the attack coupled with the overwhelming force of your team, Hokage-sama, saw the mission end before the enemy could gather enough of their resolve to put up a sufficient fight."

Naruto smiled, the fight had been plenty sufficient, their opponents had easily been on par with Chuunin, a couple _might _have even been at a Jounin level.

But it was evident that the Waves samurai were under practiced, especially compared to the Shinobi.

"Daimyo," Naruto said, "We need you to surrender."

"Don't you already have that?" The Daimyo scoffed.

"Well sir," Naruto said calmly, "We need you to give up more than just the battle, we also need you to give up the Empire, at least in this city. We need you to use your remaining soldiers to defend your city, not to wage war on us. We need you to throw down the injustice of the Empire, free the people being held captive in the serpent shrines and then burn the sites."

"We need you to declare the independence of the Land of Waves once more." Shikamaru said.

The Daimyo hung his head, "Once your soldiers and ninja are gone it will be my men that the Emperor punishes. We'd be rebels, the same as you but without a vast sea between us and the Emperor's loyalists."

"True," Naruto said, "but between you and those loyalists would be the combined ninja and samurai force of the villages hidden in Leaves, Sand, Mist and Cloud; trust me the land of Waves will be Orochimaru's last priority."

The Daimyo looked at Naruto for a long time, their eyes met.

The somewhat elderly man said "I know you. You are the Demon of Konoha."

"I'm the Hokage of the village hidden in leaves." Naruto said.

The Daimyo laughed bitterly "So you would have me trade one demon for another?"

"I'm not going to rule your country." Naruto said with a shrug, "That's still your job, but if you can't do it, if we have no choice but to replace you then I'm pretty sure we won't have too much trouble finding an honorable man for the job."

"Consider," Shikamaru said, "a compromise. Now that our forces have landed our need for your city is gone, why don't you just declare neutrality and see how this goes? Don't destroy the serpent shrines but let the prisoners held within them go free; don't fight against us, or try to stop us, but don't offer us any official help, leave it up to your citizens if they want to lend us aid or not before we leave tomorrow."

The Daimyo nodded slowly, "Very well," he said, "I will surrender my city to the Demon of Konoha, but I will not damage the Emperor's shrine, nor will I set loose those whom his servants have deemed a danger to themselves and the public . . . if _you _chose to set them loose of course I can hardly stop you, but it will be on _your _heads."

Naruto smiled, "Thank you, you honor us and your people with your wisdom, Daimyo."

The older man grunted as he was releasted and his wife and children rushed to him. Naruto could see the relief in the man's eyes not just for his family but for his people. The Daimyo must be scared out of his wits but still he was a shrewd negotiator . . . or at least Naruto had thought so.

Naruto smiled and said to Shikamaru as they walked away from the scene towards the courtyard, "Well old friend; it looks like the first step of the invasion is completed. Now what?"

"Now? Now it gets interesting of course, but first I think we need to welcome the soldiers into the city so that they can guard while our ninja get some much deserved rest. Send up some messenger birds, it's going to be sunrise soon and the fleet should be arriving about now." Shikamaru said, and Naruto noted just how exhausted he looked.

The Hokage smirked; Shikamaru was indestructible though, he'd be fine after a little rest. Naruto slapped his shoulder and said, "Make sure you get some rest, don't let Temari keep you up all day."

"I'll try, Hokage-sama." Shikamaru said with a slight smile.

Together the two left the Daimyo's palace and watched the sun rise slowly above the liberated city.

Their friends were with them, their students were with them, in a lot of ways it was like coming home to the family Naruto had missed for three long years.

And he couldn't wait to tell them what he'd done over that time; to show them.

For the moment however just looking at the sunrise was enough.

* * *

Kotaro lay on his bed staring at the ceiling.

He was hardly surprised when Kasumi entered by slipping underneath the crack in the door; handy thing moving through the shadows, he wondered if he could get her to teach him the ability, or if it was exclusive to her bloodline.

He doubted it was, but one never knew.

"What do you want?" Kotaro asked.

"I just wanted to talk . . ." Kasumi said, "Kurai's come back, Yukio is still out there. Okatsu-sensei is still in enemy hands but Kabuto-sama said that she'll literally die before she exposes anything vital."

"With him everything's literal." Kotaro grunted, "What are you doing in my room in the middle of the night?"

"Well that's kind of the thing, it's dawn . . ." Kasumi said, "The Emperor wants us assembled, Yukio's been summoned over and over again, I think our mission is going to be to go after Okatsu-sensei."

"I'll sleep that one out." Kotaro laughed.

Kasumi smiled, then she whispered, "I heard some of what you said to Shiroi . . . do you really think we're bad people for enjoying playing god?"

"Did I say that?" Kotaro yawned, he really didn't remember saying that . . . he didn't remember talking to Shiroi at all.

He really didn't remember much beyond the bullet points of the battle; they'd lost, they deserved to die in shame, they'd failed to keep the enemy from capturing Okatsu-sensei and the enemy needed to be destroyed . . . that was all that came to his mind really.

Still what Kasumi was saying did sound about right, so Kotaro said, "If I did say that I must have meant it. I was probably speaking from the heat of the moment, but . . . well yeah, I think I agree with it. It's wrong to hold ourselves up as gods, or even as the superiors of the common people . . . but I dunno, my head feels fuzzy."

Kasumi frowned and said, "Do you have a way to remember things, Kotaro-kun?"

"Outside of my own head? Not really." Kotaro said, then after a slight pause he laughed, "Or I do, and I've forgotten it."

Kasumi didn't laugh, she just said, "From now on tell me all your important things, Kotaro-kun, and I will remind you whenever you seem to have forgotten."

Kotaro shrugged. "The emperor called for us?"

"Yes." Kasumi said.

"That seems pretty important. Remind me of that . . . in five minutes." Kotaro told her.

"You intend to make the emperor wait five minutes longer than he must?" Kasumi sounded shocked.

Kotaro smirked, "He doesn't know how long it took you to wake me in the first place; he doesn't need to know that you succeeded . . . as for myself I think I must have been having a nice dream before you interrupted me so I think I'm going to try to return to it."

"In five minutes?" Kasumi blinked.

"Time is an illusion, Kasumi." Kotaro said.

Of course he hadn't been sleeping in the first place, the truth was he just didn't want to leave his room yet.

The idea that he might have said something that he had no recollection of shook him and he wanted to try to collect his thoughts.

He didn't know why but having Kasumi with him didn't make him feel any more or less comfortable or secure, if anything she was irritating him.

How could she remember something he'd said if he couldn't?

Maybe she could job his memory, "Kasumi what did I-"

"Your five minutes are up, to make the Emperor wait any longer would be insane . . . let's go, Kotaro-kun." She said.

"Are you sure my time is up?" Kotaro asked, surprised that it could've passed so quickly.

"Yes, I'm sure . . . if it seemed quick it's probably just because time is perspective." Kasumi said, and Kotaro followed her out of the room.

He hoped they didn't run into Shiroi, by the sound of it they weren't on the best of terms at the moment though he couldn't totally remember _why_.

Perhaps they were both just irritable because their mission had failed; they still didn't have Sasuke.

He felt horrible about that, he really wanted to capture Uchiha Sasuke for the Emperor. He thought of apologizing as they entered the throne room and saw the Emperor standing in his mother's body . . . the Emperor was so kind to him, had taken such good care of him and just needed a new body . . . Kotaro's mother was helping him, it was up to Kotaro to help as well . . . or . . . wait . . .

Kotaro's eyes narrowed, his mother wasn't _helping _the Emperor.

She was a prisoner.

And just like that he found what it was that made remembering so easy for him; every time he looked into those eyes, his mother's eyes and saw a stranger looking back he was reminded of exactly who he was and who his real enemy was.

He was reminded that his father was still somewhere, imprisoned, probably being experimented on.

For him it was a simple trigger that caused him to remember it all. He didn't remember every detail, like what he might have said to Shiroi . . . but he did remebmer who the real enemey was, and for him that was a good start.

* * *

Hara saw fidgeting with his fingers as the door to his temporary cell opened.

And there was a familiar face. . . someone he used to care about.

Not _her,_ and not Hitomi, but it was someone he used to know.

"Oh my gosh . . ." Naruto-sensei said, "Hara, are you okay? What happened to you?"

Hara knew his name now, but beyond that he didn't know a lot. He just looked at Naruto-sensei-surprised by the realization that he did know _that_-and said "They found me . . . went to work on me . . . I don't remember a lot."

"Where's Hitomi?"

"They took her away to heal." Hara said softly.

Naruto put a hand on his shoulder, "We'll get them for this Hara. I promise you."

Hara smiled, it'd been a long time since he'd smiled for the sake of smiling.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **And here's the update for this week. Like I said in the previous chapter the bonus chapter for reaching three hundred reviews will be posted as soon as it's finished, I've just been really busy but hope to be back on track soon. Enjoy, and thanks for all the support you, the readers have provided this story.


	52. About Hara

**Chapter Fifty One**

"So what are we looking at, Sakura?" Naruto asked.

"Well . . . this arm isn't his . . . I mean it seems to have been grafted on, but he has perfect use of it as far as I can tell. He _is _missing an eye, but he seems to have just . . . recovered from everything else, all the injuries he was reported to have suffered in the fighting last night, it's all gone."

Ino piped up, "I'll bet he recovers from wounds, but he doesn't regenerate anything he loses; I mean he's bald, if he recovered perfectly he'd grow his hair back."

"Um . . ." Sakura raised an eyebrow and Ino laughed.

"Okay, okay, bad example, but look; they grafted an arm onto him; he lost an arm somewhere obviously. He's missing an eye, now maybe it'll grow back over time but my guess is he can recover as long as he has something _to _recover, if we shove an eye in that socket even without using the proper medical Jutsu, even if the eye were damaged my bet is we could restore his sight. We'd just need a donor."

"We're not going to start hacking up our dead, but I get where you're going with this Ino," Sakura nodded, "it's frightening, something like this . . . this could make Orochimaru's ninja a lot harder to stop . . . and if it weren't being used this way it could benefit so many people . . . people who'll never walk again, or people who can't see or hear anymore . . . maybe even people who never could to begin with." Sakura looked sad.

Naruto smiled at her, "Someday it will, Sakura-chan. When we take Orochimaru down we'll make sure the one part of his legacy that does live on will be the research he did that would actually be of _use _to mankind."

"Isn't that part of the problem though?" Sakura asked, "I mean . . . using _anything _he made sort of just proves him right; that his methods were acceptable, that experimenting on a few like Hara here, torturing them, removing parts of their bodies like they've done with his arm and his eye . . . it's like we're saying it's okay. If we use anything Orochimaru developed we're just saying he was right."

"I'm pretty sure the people of the world wouldn't call us on it," Ino said, "besides you're all assuming this can be replicated. If it can then _why _isn't it standard to Orochimaru's ninja?"

"Loyalty?" Naruto suggested, "Maybe he doesn't want the rank and file soldiers to have the kind of power this recovery ability offers."

"So he gives it to an expendable berserker? One so personally close to you, Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged, "I dunno. I guess. Maybe Hara wasn't the only one . . . maybe there were a lot, and anyway Orochimaru wouldn't have cared about how loyal Hara is to me, if anything he'd be more determined to experiment on him just to hurt me."

"It's not all about you, it's also about him," Sakura said, pointing to Hara, "I think we're all missing the most practical reason Orochimaru wouldn't mind doing something like this to a test subject . . ."

"To experiment on them more frequently without having to replace them." Ino said grimly.

Naruto nodded slowly and looked at Hara who sat patiently and quietly as the three of them spoke on and on as if he weren't there listening to every word.

Naruto decided to say something for Hara's benefit, "Well whatever Orochimaru may have done to him he'll be under my care, I'll keep an eye on him. I trust him with my life, and as long as there's a little bit of my old student in there I know I won't be disappointed . . . right Hara?"

Hara Masamune looked up at his old Sensei and said, "I . . . I don't know. I remember . . . then I don't remember . . . so many things . . . I don't . . . really understand." He frowned, "I know you're Naruto . . . you were . . . my teacher . . . but you _told _me that, so did I remember it at all?" Hara frowned, he held his head, "I . . . I don't think you should trust me. I'm so . . . so confused . . . and Hitomi, where's Hitomi?"

Sakura frowned, "Hitomi? Never mind her, you need your rest."

"But . . . Hitomi is an anchor." Hara whispered, "I remember her, I remembered her name before I even knew mine, and I know she's connected to . . ."

"Miyuki." Naruto supplied, and flinched when he saw how the inability to remember the name on his own visibly pained Hara.

Hara steeled his resolve and whispered, "She's connected to Miyuki . . . when I was . . . _if _I was in prison, I _think _I worked out that if I found Hitomi . . . she'd help me find Miyuki. I need to stay with Hitomi."

"It's fine, Hara," Naruto said, "We're a team. You, me, Hitomi, we're all going to work together to find Miyuki."

"No." Sakura said flatly.

"Um, Sakura," Ino said, "Maybe you should consult Shikamaru before you go contradicting our Hokage?"

"No." Sakura said again. "Naruto . . . until Ino has had a chance to really probe Hara's mind, before we know for sure what's going on with him I don't think Hara should be close to you _or _to Sasuke, and Hijiri is going to be close to you both. For all we know Orochimaru put him here for us to find so he could get close to you and kill you, or get close to Sasuke and capture him. We can't trust it."

Naruto frowned, "So what do you want to do with him? Just leave him here? He's a Konoha Shinobi, Sakura."

"He _was_." Sakura nodded.

"I trust him." Naruto said firmly.

"No . . ." Hara said, and Naruto stared at him in surprise. "Don't trust me . . . I . . . don't think I can be trusted . . . I don't know what they've done to me, Sensei."

"Hara . . . you're strong enough to fight whatever Jutsu they might have put on you. I believe in you and I trust you, nothing Orochimaru's done can take that away."

Hara shook his head, "No! I'm not strong enough, I can barely remember anything from the past . . . what did you say, _four _years of my life, I just remember faces, images, one name and it wasn't even my own! I'm not strong enough to fight them, and even if I wasn't given some sort of subliminal orders I cant guarantee I won't fall apart the minute I see one of them on the field . . . I appreciate your trust Sensei, but I don't deserve it."

"Naruto, let's talk with Shikamaru about this, see what he thinks," Ino suggested, and Naruto knew he was being placated.

But maybe Hitomi would be on his side, "Fine, fine, you two go ahead and take care of the injured, Hara you stay here under guard, I'm going to see Hitomi and if she's well enough I'll bring her back here and the three of us can see if we can't think of some way to help Miyuki."

"If we can find her . . ." Hara whispered.

"_When _we find her, we'll find her Hara . . . and she'll be just fine, you'll see."

Nobody looked too convinced and Naruto had to admit he himself didn't know for sure.

He thought Hara would've been just fine too, thought after a year when Hara didn't show up on the Island and Orochimaru didn't make any sort of public declaration of capturing him that the boy must have died or gone into hiding.

A small part of him even fantasized that Hara had joined up with Hitomi and Sasuke, or that he and Miyuki had run off together and gotten married in some quiet corner of Orochimaru's empire out of harm's way.

But in the end Hara _had _been captured, and he'd suffered.

And Naruto was at _least _partially responsible for it . . . four years, four _long _years . . .

He'd told himself at first that it couldn't be helped, that he was working as fast as he could . . .

But it'd still been too long. Four years too long . . .

* * *

Keika smirked and ran her hand over the rough bark of a fallen tree before sitting down on it and leaning against one of its branches. "You know, Mi-chan the forest is considered the wild, but it's really no different than a city . . . well, a city where you don't speak the language."

"Oh yeah?" Hitomi asked, folding her arms, "And why are we . . . enjoying this nature walk?"

"Think about it," Keika said, "Yourself and I are just as out of place here as we would be in any city. The forest has violent murders here and there, animals killing animals and you've got wars fought on a scale more violent than most of the ones humans fight."

"Okay . . ." Hitomi said, watching her distant relative carefully.

Keika's smirk didn't diminish though it was clear she realized Hitomi wasn't quite getting the moral of the story. She said, "You're still like a baby yourself, you're not understanding the basics you need to learn before you progress. The truth is that myself I'm as comfortable in the wilds as I am in a city, no more or less. To me the average person is as dangerous as a wild animal, but the real dangers are the ones you don't expect."

"Okay," Hitomi said, "So we're here to learn about danger, or to learn to trust animals or what? Are we going to sing a song and invite mister fox to tea?"

Keika laughed, "If your wanting to dance through the woods singing to all the little birds and deer you go right ahead; Myself will just be pretending I don't know you. No little Mi, we're not here to talk to the animals, we're sane."

"Well one of us is," Hitomi smirked and Keika laughed again.

She watched Hitomi with those red eyes of hers, the same eyes as Hitomi herself.

Hitomi found herself wondering so many things about those eyes; the last person she'd encountered who also possessed a pair of eyes like that hadn't had any answers and it turned out that he hadn't obtained them naturally as she and presumably Keika had.

The first person she'd met had been her mother, whom she'd driven away with her hatred and her blame. She'd hated everything she was, everything she perceived her mother to have made her with her delinquent genes

Others with special abilities were hailed as gifted individuals, the Uchiha clan had been the Leaf Village's pride and joy hadn't they? In many ways they still were even though the Leaf Village was destroyed and their clan was down to just one member.

But her clan? Where did they even come from? Did they have a home? A place where she could be considered average and not some freak?

So that, Hitomi decided, was the first thing to ask Keika.

"Keika, where are you from? Where are we from?"

Keika tilted her head to the side and smiled benevolently, "Nowhere in particular really. Myself I was born on the road between Stone and Rain. Was raised mostly in the Land of Lightning though, then when I figured I was old enough to get by on my own I made my way here and it's been nice enough that I haven't strayed more than a few days from Kaoru-kun's village since."

"He says you're usually gone for weeks on end." Hitomi said.

"Gone but not really very far;" Keika said with a shrug.

Hitomi smiled slightly, "You really care about him, huh?"

"Did you think I got pregnant because I hated him and wanted to teach him a lesson?" Keika smirked. Hitomi supposed she _had _sounded pretty stupid and bowed her head in apology but Keika laughed, "I like Kaoru more than most; I've had hotter feelings for an individual or two in my time but in the end if I love anyone besides myself Kaoru is probably that person."

Keika smiled, "So who is it that you "really care about" yourself?"

"Nobody;" Hitomi scoffed, "I'm not the sort."

"There you go lying to me again; you're in love I can tell."

"I am not!" Hitomi said, feeling her cheeks turning red, "I . . . let's talk about something else!"

Keika laughed softly and went back to leaning against the branch, "Right, myself I had a purpose bringing you out here and it wasn't to talk. Like I said, Mi-chan, the real dangers are the ones you don't expect. If you want to survive in the wild just as the city you need to suspect everything. Yourself being a ninja you have a safety net in your abilities but my own daddy always said the best blade doesn't need to be used for bloodshed . . . or something like that; myself didn't care at the time."

Hitomi put her hands on her hips, "So . . . what, what are we doing here? How can I expect the danger that isn't coming when I'm pretty confident that I'm the most dangerous thing for a good ten miles?"

Keika smiled, "Can yourself see through your own eyelids yet?"

"What?" Hitomi blinked.

"Can yourself see through your own eyelids. You know, like they're not there." Keika asked.

"I . . . no." Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"But if I blindfolded you it wouldn't bother you at all would it?" Keika smirked.

"No." Hitomi said, "I can see through pretty much any cloth."

Keika smiled expectantly, when Hitomi didn't say anything Keika said, "You don't know anything about your own body do you?"

"I've had the typical education; I know how muscles work more or less, I know I'll get old and die if nobody bothers to kill me first, I think I understand my body pretty well."

"Oh really?" Keika asked, "So you're knowing about our eyes."

"Well . . ." Hitomi trailed off.

Keika smirked, "You're knowing about our brains too, right?"

Hitomi folded her arms, "What about our brains?"

"Are you thinking eyes are independent from the rest of yourself? Obviously if our eyes work differently than most people the way our brains are receiving the information is probably too, didn't you think? Genjutsu and visual tricks don't work on you right? Don't you ever wonder why?"

Hitomi frowned and felt a little stupid for saying, "So what? What's this got to do with unexpected danger? Are our brains like super sensitive to-"

"Your brain _is _the unexpected danger, Mi-chan." Keika said solemnly, but then she brightened up, "So is that thing behind you."

Hitomi spun around and saw the bear charging for her. The only thing to do was stop the beast; Keika would never get away in time. Hitomi's eyes narrowed, she held her breath, and fell into stance.

* * *

With a gasp Hitomi's eyes shot open and she sat up. She wasn't sure where she was and looking around wasn't revealing many clues; she was definitely indoors, it didn't seem to be a prison. She'd been lying on a sort of couch, there were three others like it in the room and two of them were also occupied by people dressed in bandages.

The other was empty, but it looked like whoever had been using it had recently gotten up and left.

There was no window, she had no idea what time it was but she wasn't in prison so she supposed her side had won the battle.

There were dim lights in the room, she noticed that her goggles were still on and she smiled slightly to herself about that.

With a quick check to make sure she could still feel all her limbs, then a visual confirmation that they really were all there she quietly stood up and took her flak jacket from the ground by her couch.

She threw it on and headed for the door, opening it quietly so she wouldn't disturb the other two inhabitants of the room.

She took a few steps outside before she saw a familiar face round a corner down the hall.

Her old sensei smiled a warm smile at her, and she couldn't help but smile in return, her eyes even watered but it wasn't like they were tears or anything . . . totally not tears.

Naruto-sensei said, "You have no idea how good it is to see you alive and well."

Hitomi hugged her sensei with all her strength, which wasn't much, she said, "I think it's probably almost as good as it is to see _you _alive and well Sensei."

"Better." Naruto said.

"Hard to believe." Hitomi said, and she smiled weakly, "Have you seen . . ."

"Hara?"

She nodded.

Her Sensei smiled weakly, "Yeah . . . I guess Sakura and Shikamaru are going to want to talk to me about him, what our options are . . . Hitomi, you know everyone's going to be heading out by dusk, by dawn we should be attacking our next targets."

"I know." Hitomi said.

Naruto said, "I understand you're probably going to want to travel with Sasuke . . ."

"No!" Hitomi said, "I mean . . . well, I think Sasuke-sama would understand, I mean . . . you're my Sensei, if you wanted me to travel with you I'd-"

"No . . . no, Hitomi I think it'd be better if you didn't." Naruto said, "See . . . I don't want Hara left behind . . . and he says you're an anchor, something he remembered even before we found him . . . I want to put him in your care, and in Sasuke's."

"What?" Hitomi blinked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Shikamaru isn't going to let me travel with a possible assassin in my team, but you, Hitomi . . . I know that I can trust you to take care of Hara, and he'll be there to help take care of you. Hitomi, take Hara with you, go with Sasuke . . . find Miyuki if you can."

Hitomi frowned, "Sensei, what if Sasuke is the one Hara is meant to assassinate? I mean . . . no offense but Sasuke-sama means more to Orochimaru than you do."

"I know . . ." Naruto hesitated, and then he said, "I also know Hara wouldn't succeed against Sasuke . . . Orochimaru probably knows this too. Hara _could _succeed in assassinating me, Hitomi . . . because I wouldn't risk killing him to stop him, and with this regeneration ability he has I don't think I could just subdue him, it's too risky . . ."

Hitomi lowered her gaze as she absorbed her Sensei's meaning.

Naruto-sensei trusted Hara, it was Orochimaru he didn't trust. Naruto-sensei would defend himself against Hara, but if it came down to the life or death of one or the other Naruto wasn't sure he'd be capable of killing his own student.

Probably not true, Hitomi was pretty sure that if her life depended on it she could kill anyone-within her range of skill-and the same was, she supposed, true of anyone in a pinch. But still it wasn't a bad precaution to take.

Naruto-sensei wanted Hara with someone familiar, and Hitomi fit the bill. He wanted him somewhere where there was at least a chance of finding Miyuki, and that was again with Hitomi.

And he wanted to be sure that if Hara were an assassin then the other most likely target wouldn't be someone so likely to hesitate, and Hitomi knew after having seen what Orochimaru had done to Hara that _if _Hara were still under that snake's control then a quick death at the hands of Uchiha Sasuke would be preferable to years of continued slavery to the enemy.

She lowered her gaze and whispered, "I understand, Sensei. For what it's worth, I don't think Orochimaru would try to have Hara attack Sasuke."

But that wasn't true. If Orochimaru had any measure of control over Hara attacking Naruto or Sasuke would both serve his ends.

If Hara attacked Naruto and succeeded the benefit to Orochimaru was obvious. If he attacked Sasuke and succeeded again, the benefit was obvious.

But if he attacked Sasuke and failed, if Sasuke killed him the effect on Naruto would be terrible.

It was a win-win for Orochimaru.

Hitomi would just have to make sure that it never happened.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **I know how badly behind the story is, and I am very sorry, you loyal readers deserve better. It has been hard to keep up, so much going on it's hard to find time to write. It didn't help that I spent like _all _of this last weekend sleeping. I havent forgotten the needed bonus chapter, this was originally it but I slept so much I never got to even begin the update chapter for last week (or like the week before) But, here's this chapter at least, and much thanks to all the reviewers who keep this story alive and endure the longer waits in between chapters. A thanks to everyone who has read this far, who has read any of the other "books" to all those who defend the series, to all those who debate it, to everyone who posts on the message board that I still need to clean up, to everyone that never reviews but reads anyay-your hits count too-I'll do my best to get caught up.


	53. In the Palaces

**Chapter Fifty-One**

Yukio stood in the trees on the outskirts of the city, the nagging sensation in the back of his head was growing more powerful and he knew that soon the emperor would just yank him back to his real body.

But . . . he wanted just a few more moments, and he hoped whatever mind reading lackey Orochimaru had monitoring him-since by now it was a given that Orochimaru would want to know what was going through his head-would understand.

He didn't fully understand why, but he wanted to watch the sunrise.

It felt like something he hadn't seen for a while; both Yukio and the body he was in. He didn't know why he felt that way, but he did.

He couldn't secure the body; the host would be free once Yukio left him. He might be bewildered, but he'd be free.

And Yukio was okay with that . . .

He didn't know the man, didn't know his name or even where he came from originally; didn't know if he was loyal to Orochimaru or a prisoner.

Yukio didn't know if he-the host-would see the sunrise too, and to be honest he didn't fully care, he was watching the sunrise for himself, the host was getting freedom out of this, he could watch the sun rise whenever he wanted.

Ryu . . . Yukio thought about his now departed friend almost at random. He thought about Kyoko . . . she had a cursed mark now . . . he didn't want to know that, for some reason he didn't want Orochimaru to know that . . . he didn't want Orochimaru to get Kyoko, didn't want her to die like . . .

He'd been their leader, even when the other two rose to the Chuunin rank before him he'd always seen himself as the squad leader . . . he'd been jealous of them, he'd resented them . . . so he joined the enemy hoping to be more powerful.

And he was . . .

He was very powerful now . . . but not powerful enough to convert Kyoko, not powerful enough to keep Ryu from dying.

He'd let Ryu die . . . there had to have been something he could have done, but he'd just stood there like an idiot.

And Kyoko . . . Temari-sensei . . . he'd left them to live . . . he'd be reprimanded for it . . . but he couldn't bear to hurt them, even though . . . Kyoko . . .

He closed his eyes for a moment and told himself to forget it. Ryu had died in the field; he'd died the death of a Shinobi.

His killer was of no importance. He might as well have not even seen Kyoko out there; he just needed to forget her before he betrayed her . . .

He watched the horizon as the sun began to peak over the tree line, his wish finally being fulfilled. It began with a general brightening of the area, and then slowly but surely, the orange disk began to rise into the sky.

Because of the smoke from the burning ships the night before and the parts of the city that had been burned by the imperial forces-and at least in some cases, Yukio was pretty sure the invading ninja themselves-the sun seemed almost like an dark orange, almost red ball floating up in the smog.

It was bright, but through the cloud of smog, Yukio could look right at it without hurting his eyes. It was a strange sight, not what he'd expected but still welcome.

Yukio smiled, and finally he gave in to the nagging call of Orochimaru.

He opened his eyes again, telling himself he'd hold onto that memory and treasure it. Good or bad, it was something new and special.

But of course, once he sat up in the channeling chamber he couldn't remember what he'd worked so hard to remember . . . he didn't remember what happened to Ryu, had Ryu even been in Waves?

No, Ryu was probably still in the capital city, he'd see him later.

But something was bugging him, something in the back of his mind . . .

Kyoko . . . Kyoko had a . . .

"No!" He said aloud, to the surprise of several medics who'd been attending him.

He shoved them aside, someone said, "Don't disturb him; he must be going to report to the Emperor."

But Yukio did no such thing.

He headed straight for his quarters and he collapsed on his bed.

He closed his eyes, and he told himself to go to sleep, even though his body had just spent the past several hours in a sleeplike state.

He didn't _need _sleep, but he was still weary. He wanted sleep and he wanted to forget.

Forget anything that could harm the friends he had left.

* * *

The Legendary Laze of Konoha found a comfortable enough spot on the grass and willingly collapsed onto his back to stare up at the sky.

There weren't any clouds, just a big gray smog and an angry red sun glaring down on the children of men; disapproving of the blood they'd spilled.

And Shikamaru hoped it knew it could go shove its head in a bucket.

Yet more blood was going to have to be spilt to win the war. The blood of good and wicked men on both sides of this massive conflict.

He was making himself both available and unavailable; he hadn't told anyone where he'd be, but he wasn't exactly hiding.

It was a strange feeling, wanting to be alone and knowing he shouldn't be.

He wondered if Temari would let him retire as a recluse when the war was over. They could set up a nice little cottage in the woods, make medicines and sell them to any poor slob who wandered into their woods and got injured.

Then of course their kids would never see Chouji's kids again, so they'd be lonely. Shikamaru wouldn't see any of his friends anymore . . .

So maybe being a recluse wasn't as good as it seemed at first.

Maybe when the kids were old enough to move out and live on their own. Then Shikamaru and Temari could live the secluded life in the woods.

_And if we have this third kid we'd be old by the time he's moved out so we'll have the added bonus of being the crazy _old _people living in the woods._ Shikamaru reasoned to himself.

Almost as if she sensed him thinking of her Temari walked boldly into view.

To look at her one would never guess she'd been up for over twenty-four hours and spending most of that time fighting, she looked ready to face a thousand samurai if necessary.

"Hiding?" She asked.

"I'm in the open." He said with a shrug.

"Have you given any thought to the situation with Sumiko?" She asked.

"Of all the things you could ask me, you pick the most troublesome topic."

"Planning a war is less troublesome than figuring out what to do with your daughter?" Temari scoffed.

Shikamaru watched the red sun climb through the gray sky and shrugged, "Sumiko-chan is with Emiko now, we'll ask her what she guesses is the best way to go about sending our daughter home. The army needs to move out soon, not enough time for us to send a messenger bird, let alone our daughter back to the island."

Temari sat on the grass with him and said, "You've already decided, but you're waiting to see if Emiko confirms it, aren't you?"

"Something like that." Shikamaru grunted. "She's my daughter, her safety means too much and I can't plan with "acceptable risks" because no risk seems acceptable to me."

Temari was quiet for a moment, and Shikamaru decided to seize the conversation, "Temari, what about you? Are you doing okay?"

"What? What do you mean?" Temari asked, and then laughed, "You're not thinking of sending _me _back with her, are you? I need to be here, I need to be fighting this war, remember?"

"I remember." Shikamaru nodded, "I'm not sending you back, I'm just asking . . . are you okay?"

Temari smiled weakly, "Would you be? Of course I'm not great . . . but I can manage, I can fight . . . Kyoko can too, she's really shaken up but at least she's stopped crying."

Shikamaru shook his head slowly, "She's probably going to need some time to herself, but she shouldn't be alone either. It's sad really, we're trained from our childhood to kill . . . kill the enemies of our village, the enemies of our country . . . but killing someone you've known half your life, someone you grew up with-"

"It's not just that, Shikamaru. Yukio and Ryu betrayed Suna, they betrayed us, on paper she did the right thing, on paper Ryu got what he . . ." Temari's voice faltered and she whispered, "But we're not paper dolls, it's complicated. I don't know how I feel about it yet."

Shikamaru sat up and said "I guess I'd never really understand . . . but I'm here you know, if you want to just voice anything."

Temari smiled weakly and shook her head, "Nice try, changing the subject."

"I wasn't." Shikamaru said softly, "I'm sort of thinking . . . that maybe Kyoko should go back home."

"She will." Temari said firmly, "When we take Sunagakure back. You're not sending her back to the island, Shikamaru, not even to protect Sumiko. She's not unstable, she'll get through this and be even more determined to end the war, you'll see."

Shikamaru nodded, and said, "Well . . . the ships should be unloading by now. I think we'd better go get Sumiko-chan."

Temari laughed bitterly, "What an experience for her, the first real city she's seen since she was a toddler and it's just been beaten down and lit on fire. Who did that anyway? I thought we were only going to burn the ships."

"From what I've heard it was mostly accidental, with a few fires deliberately set in the serpent shrines. Nothing much spread from the fires we lit on the wall or in the harbor but in a couple places where the fighting was really heavy, or where the wind carried it from the shrines it spread to other parts of the city."

"This won't look good." Temari commented, "We show up and start fires all over. Gaara told me that none of the Suna ninja have confessed to lighting fires in the shrines, a few said that the shrines went up on their own."

"Probably fires set from the inside, I haven't heard of us capturing a single intact shrine; Orochimaru probably ordered everything cleaned up." Shikamaru said.

Temari nodded slowly, "How do you think the populace will deal with us?"

"It's still early morning, the Daimyo hasn't announced anything yet," Shikamaru said, "But Naruto says they probably won't resist us. They may not _like _us, but they won't try to stop us from doing what we need to do and moving on."

The two got up and began to head for the dock when the Hokage himself caught up to them.

"Hey you two," Naruto said, "I was wondering about something."

"We're going to the docks, wonder while we walk." Shikamaru said.

"Why are you guys going to the docks? Sakura-chan told me the generals will come to us for the war council . . . am I supposed to be down there too?"

Shikamaru couldn't help but smile; he'd missed his old friend.

"Shikamaru didn't mention did he?" Temari scoffed, "When he was packing his things for the war, he accidentally packed our daughter."

"You what?" Naruto gawked.

"She's exaggerating; I'd never shove Sumiko in a bag." Shikamaru said lightly, "I'm sure she walked onto the ship with her own two legs."

"Ah so you made her _carry _your bags; thanks for clearing that up." Temari rolled her eyes, "You see the husband I have to deal with?"

"But wait, Sumiko is _on _the ship?" Naruto sounded confused.

"Yeah, we're going to go get her." Shikamaru said.

"You brought your daughter with you?" Naruto seemed absolutely perplexed.

"We'll explain on the way; you said you wondering about something?" Shikamaru asked as the three of them headed for the docks.

It wasn't long of course before a trio of Jounin fell in with them, the Hokage wasn't leaving the secured capital building without an escort it seemed, and Konohamaru seemed to have taken it upon himself-and a pair of Hyuga-to provide it.

Hinata had probably had something to do with it too. Shikamaru wondered briefly where she was, but paid attention as Naruto explained the situation with Hara.

He explained Sakura's concerns and his decision to send Hara with Hitomi and Sasuke.

Shikamaru listened and privately made a mental note to talk to Hitomi before she had a chance to leave, they'd dealt well with each other so far, and he'd have to hope she was willing to trust him again.

"So what do you think, Shikamaru? Am I being blinded by my bond with my student, or is Sakura right? That he might be sent to kill me."

Shikamaru frowned and said "I think Orochimaru knows you better than we expected."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Hara is the only one of the berserker test subjects that we captured to mention another person, Hitomi is the only thing he remembers. He didn't remember you without help you said."

"Uh-huh . . ." Naruto frowned.

"Well, were he and Hitomi intimate, do you know?" Temari asked, "Didn't he favor the other girl in your squad?"

"Yeah, Miyuki. I always figured they'd get together sooner or-"

"Not the point," Temari interrupted, "Hokage-sama, he only remembered Hitomi. She was his teammate, sure but so were you. If he were going to have feelings intense enough to break through whatever brain washing they put him and everyone else under it just seems odd that Hitomi would be the only one he remembers."

"But not remotely unexpected when one considers that Hitomi fought and defeated Shiroi a few weeks ago, exposing herself and her affiliation with Sasuke." Shikamaru smirked. He loved having a wife that could keep up with him intellectually, Temari had realized just as he had that Hara's memory was suspicious, but she lacked that bit of information that Shikamaru had gotten from his talk with Hitomi.

"So what are you saying?" Naruto asked, "Orochimaru wants Hara to attack Sasuke?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "It's probably that. But I think it's more a matter of knowing he has someone near Sasuke, or at least someone near someone else near Sasuke. If the lack of memories is the result of some sort of Jutsu Ino should be able to root it out, if she hasn't or she can't it may be mental conditioning, or even some sort of narcotic. That Hara resisted any of those things to remember someone he happens to know who also happens to be close to Sasuke . . . well it seems suspicious."

"So what do we do?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "Odds are Orochimaru knows me too, he knows I'd figure that out-if it's true-and expects me to tell you to keep Hara from Sasuke, which puts a dangerous potential assassin near _you _instead. Either way he wins, he knows we can't just leave Hara locked up because we're not going to be staying anywhere long enough for that, and with no ninja going back on the boats we can't risk a Jounin prisoner going into our home island, or to Kirigakure where he could do some real damage."

"This can't be lose-lose-lose, what do you suggest?" Naruto asked.

"I suggest doing the thing that has the greatest chance of benefiting Orochimaru and therefore the thing he's least likely to think I'd tell you to do; send Hara with Sasuke. You made the right decision for the right reasons, Naruto and I'll tell Sakura that. You just need to know that while you had the right conclusion, the risks are probably greater than you expected."

Naruto nodded slowly, and Temari said "If it makes you feel any better we left Sumiko with Hirate Emiko, she can always hazard a guess for you."

Naruto laughed, "I'll have faith in my own decision, and in Shikamaru's logic even if I don't understand all of it. Besides, Sasuke is going to need some Konoha ninja with him to remind him that even if he's traveling with Mist he doesn't need to stay with them forever."

"I'm not so sure he'll see it that way." Shikamaru commented. He was pretty sure Sasuke would already have begun to see the potential of staying with Kirigakure.

* * *

Kurai stood quietly in the doorway to his quarters watching his wife play with their son. She seemed calm, happy even just watching him build some sort of tower and handing him blocks.

After almost four years of having a son Kurai had gotten used to the whole "fatherhood" thing. It'd been tricky at first, but eventually he and Shiroi had found a way to work it out; raising a child in the fortress of their once enemy now master.

But for all the heat of their teens he and Shiroi's feelings had cooled significantly since the fall of Konoha, since she became so totally devoted to Orochimaru's cause.

Kurai, in his moments of clarity, sometimes wondered if he was in love with Shiroi. He knew he loved her, but was he _in _love with her?

Sometimes he wondered, or at least remembered that sometimes he wondered-usually he was in something of a stupor.

But he knew he loved his son, and when Shiroi was with Saizo she seemed like the girl he'd fallen in love with, instead of the woman he was halfway between afraid and ashamed of.

If she could just be like that all the time . . .

Maybe he was the problem, maybe she'd always been the way she was and he'd just let his hormones get the best of him in those teenage years; Kurai wasn't sure. It was hard to be certain of things anymore.

If there was one thing he did know it was that no matter what sort of stupor he might be in most of the time his son was his one reason for being in the palace, for being with the Five.

If anything ever happened to his son he'd turn that instant, destroy every evil thing he could in the palace before he was finally stopped, and sometimes he forgot this thought as soon as he had it but often he recalled it, remembered it; it was a very strong feeling.

It was one he felt like he used to feel for his wife, but might not anymore.

He didn't know.

It was hard to find anything real in the palace, it hadn't surprised him that Yukio had stayed out of body for so long, maybe it would do the man some good; on most days he was as bad as Shiroi, reveling in the madness around them rather than even attempting to fight it.

Maybe, whatever Yukio had seen that kept him away would benefit him.

Maybe something out there could benefit Shiroi too. Maybe someday the rare scene Kurai witnessed of his wife being soft and kind wouldn't be a rarity anymore.

On the other hand, maybe this war would see that side of her washed away forever.

Only time would tell.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	54. I Just Remembered

**Chapter Fifty Two**

Naomasa leaned against a tree in a park in the city of Waves.

It wasn't the park that he and his team used to use as a hangout back in Konoha, the park where he'd spent so many hours with Kotaro, Yomiko, even Hitomi and Tomoko.

But it was a park, and he decided he liked that.

Being in the woods was one thing, it was pretty but in a park everything was organized and that was pretty too.

There was no one else around, and that was probably because Naomasa was there.

At first the people were reluctant to leave their homes, a few daring to come out to do business with the invaders, most had started out demanding insane prices for things nobody was interested in buying anyway, now things had settled a bit and the commoners were emerging, mostly because the remaining Samurai and soldiers of Waves were going around assuring them that everything was settled.

But they kept a wide berth from the ninja, they seemed a little more tolerant of the Samurai and soldiers coming off the ships now, but the ninja were evil as far as they were concerned.

Nao remembered the last time he'd come through the city. It'd been four years ago with his sister Eri, and his team. People had been generally unwelcoming and in some instances openly hostile towards the ninja presence in their town. Nao didn't expect things had gotten any better under the Imperial regime, in fact Waves had at the time been something of a preview of what he expected much of his old homeland would be now.

Still he felt a little bad that his presence might be keeping away anyone who would normally have enjoyed the calm setting of the park, but nobody asked them to be such bigots and he needed just a few more moments to . . . center himself or something.

He just didn't want to leave the calm, organized beauty of the park, or the nostalgic feeling he felt there.

"Pretty, huh?" Yomiko said, "Like the one in Konoha."

"I didn't hear you come up." Nao commented.

"Hmm. Could've killed you then." Yomiko observed, "Lucky for you I'm me."

"Maybe I'm just used to your presence." Nao said, but in truth he was shaken a bit. It might be a bit that he was just used to Yomiko being around, but part of it had been that he'd very much let his guard down.

"Nostalgic, isn't it?" Yomiko smiled, "It's like the one in Konoha."

"I was just thinking the same thing." Nao admitted.

"Empty though." She said.

"Just thinking the same thing." He smiled.

"Do you think, when this is all over, we'll all be able to hang out in the park again? You know, you and me and Kotaro, Kyoko and her . . ."

Nao smiled weakly, Yomiko had been about to say "team" but . . .

"She's doing better at least." Yomiko added, "She's not smiling and laughing and telling jokes or anything, but at least she's sort of relaxed now that the fighting's over."

Nao felt bad for Kyoko, and he'd wanted to be there for her but Yomiko and Temari had told him they had things under control; Nao wasn't sure _how _under control they had things if Temari herself was probably grieving too, but then he also didn't want to make his Sensei's wife angry.

Temari would probably snap him like a twig.

He'd also been pretty distracted . . . he'd had trouble thinking about anything besides Hitomi.

He'd gone to check on her, been told by a medic that she was out and about but that the medic had no idea where she was.

And so he'd looked for her for a while, but in an unfamiliar city he had no idea where to begin, eventually he'd found the park and just decided that he'd enjoy it for a bit and maybe Hitomi would find him instead.

But Yomiko had showed up, which wasn't terrible.

And she was right, the place was very nostalgic. He wondered when he'd ever have a chance like this again, to just relax and enjoy something beautiful.

Probably not until after the war was over, and who knew when that would be? Even if they took Otogakure they'd still need to take Iwagakure, which would be heavily fortified. The war never reached Earth's doorstep, nobody had any experience with invading the Lands of Earth, at least with Konoha Shikamaru-sensei knew where he was going and the best ways to get there.

Naomasa wondered, was this a war his children would fight? Would he have children? With whom? If Hitomi refused to return his affection-but then she'd kissed him so maybe-but no, she was about to faint, that kiss could have meant _anything, _for all he knew she thought he was someone else.

Being a seventeen year old shinobi fighting a war was unnerving enough. Being a seventeen year old shinobi in love with a twenty two year old emotionally reclusive woman who already had a kid from someone else and betrayed very few hints of returning his affection _during_ a war was just some sort of proof that the universe hated him.

But he doubted his feelings would change overnight, and he doubted he wanted them to.

But it felt weird talking to Yomiko about them, so he didn't. It was strange, but he'd almost rather talk to Kyoko, but he wasn't sure what the difference was, they were both girls, both his teammates.

Was he just closer to Kyoko? Or was it the open declaration between the two of them that there was no, and would never be any sexual interest? Did that somehow make it _easier _to talk to her?

With Yomiko that was just sort of implied, he was certain she didn't want him and she knew he wanted Hitomi so the two of them should have no problem discussing things like that, but still it felt awkward, so he didn't want to initiate the rough conversation.

Besides, Yomiko had never been in favor of his liking Hitomi, back in Konoha she'd spoken against the match a few times.

Nao didn't know what to do really, except maybe drop the subject from his mind and go back to focusing on the park.

Was Yomiko even still there? Yes, she was . . . maybe he should say something, just not something about his problems. Ask about hers? Sure, why not?

"So Hitomi kissed me." He said.

Idiot.

"Yeah, I caught that." Yomiko grunted, "You guys were standing in the street, I'm sure Sensei saw it too."

Nao felt himself blushing, he said, "Well uh . . . what about you? Um . . . how's your love life?"

"Meh." Yomiko waved her hand lightly, "It's nothing to report really. Oh but I'm so thrilled for you."

She was being sarcastic, obviously, but Nao decided to let it go; he shouldn't have mentioned kissing Hitomi, he hadn't _meant _to mention it.

"You know I wouldn't give you such a hard time if I'd caught you kissing . . . gosh, whoever." Nao said, realizing that Yomiko interacted with a guy or two in their line of work, but apart from him and their Sensei, her cousin Konohamaru was the only guy she spent a great deal of time with, and Nao highly doubted there was anything going on between the two of _them_.

"No, you probably wouldn't." Yomiko said thoughtfully. "I guess I should lighten up on you, huh?"

"It'd be nice." Nao said. "Anyway lets not talk about this anymore, why don't we go see if Kyoko needs anything."

"Like what?" Yomiko asked, "There's nothing we can get her. There isn't exactly a card for this sort of situation. All we can do is be there for her."

"So . . ." Nao said, patting Yomiko's shoulder, "Let's go be there for her."

* * *

Shikamaru smiled when Sumiko carefully stepped down from the ramp that led from the ship, then rushed over to her mother.

Such a mama's girl.

"Did you enjoy your ride on the boat?" Temari asked.

"Ship." Sumiko corrected.

The adults laughed, and before Shikamaru or Temari could ask her if she recognized Naruto, Sumiko spotted him and said, "Ice cream!"

Shikamaru was surprised, he hadn't expected Sumiko to recognize Naruto, at least not so quickly.

He wondered if it was remotely normal for a child to have such a good memory.

Then he noticed the ice cream stand behind Naruto and raised an eyebrow.

Had she recognized Naruto as the guy who always got her ice cream or had she just spotted the ice cream stand by the dock?

Naruto seemed moved though so Shikamaru didn't say anything.

And of course Emiko wasn't far behind Sumiko. she smiled and said, "Well it seems like last evening went as you planned."

"Mostly." Shikamaru said, "The losses were pretty high."

"But you're prepared to move on soon?" Emiko asked.

"You know the answer to that." Shikamaru sighed.

Emiko smiled, "Don't worry. It's all going to work out."

"Well we'll see won't we? I'd hate for that to be the first thing you're ever wrong about." Shikamaru said, "Besides now that Naruto is back it's got to put a bit more pressure on Orochimaru."

"Yes, but I'm afraid Orochimaru has a few more tricks to put pressure on Naruto-san, and his are going to be pretty bad . . . I'm sorry, I shouldn't have blurted that out . . ." Emiko said with a frown.

"No, no . . . it's good that we know to expect something nasty from him." Naruto said, but Emiko didn't look comforted.

She said "Before we part ways I really must warn you, Shikamaru, Naruto, do not overextend yourselves; there are those who see this war as merely a prelude to the next, and they will work extensively to limit their losses and increase your own."

"Mist." Shikamaru said with a slight roll of his eyes.

"Well wait a minute, Sasuke is with Mist, he'll be able to keep them honest, right?" Naruto asked.

There came a point where naiveté became dangerous, but Shikamaru didn't want to burst Naruto's bubble just yet. After all so far it wasn't likeSasuke had actually done anything wrong.

Emiko had no such reservations, "Sasuke sees himself as a big player for the Land of Water and the Village Hidden in Mist, but my guess would be that they're using him far more than he's using them . . . worse I think they may already have what they wanted from him, he'll wont be able to control them unless he controls them."

Naruto folded his arms, "I won't let them use my best friend and just throw him away."

"You may not have a choice, Hokage-sama." Emiko said sadly, "Sometimes people are too proud to admit that they're being used, even to themselves."

* * *

Sakura looked up as Sasuke walked into her small office. I'd been a servant's room and had just a small sleeping mat and a sitting cushion. She was taking a quick break from tending to the wounded and considering catching a catnap before the inevitable war council-Ino was bound to wake her up when her break was over, she always did-but thoughts of sleep vanished when Sasuke entered her office.

He looked troubled, she wanted nothing more than to tell him to rest his head on her shoulder-no, no her chest, that'd be _far_ more romantic-and tell her all about it.

But she didn't. She just watched him carefully and asked, "What is it?"

"Sakura . . . I want you to come with me." Sasuke said.

"Excuse me?"

Sasuke took a seat and said, "When I go with the army of Waves and the ninja of Mist, I want you with me . . . I don't have any faith in Shikamaru's ability to keep you out of danger."

"Then have faith in Naruto's, he's going to be in charge now." Sakura said.

"Don't act like you don't know Shikamaru will still be calling the shots," Sasuke said, "Naruto doesn't have the tactical ability that Shikamaru does and they both know it. Shikamaru will set Naruto up so he thinks he's making the decisions, Naruto will trust whatever Shikamaru says and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"So what, you're going to protect me, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, she didn't speak harshly but Sasuke reacted as if he'd been punched in the stomach.

"I never said that, I just said I want you to come with me. I know you can take care of yourself, but you're not an army. When Shikamaru gets Konoha's forces slaughtered I don't want you there for that . . . besides, I trust you more than anyone else, Sakura."

"What about Karin?" Sakura asked with far less tact than she'd meant to use.

Sasuke shook his head, "I don't know whose eating out of whose hand with her, whenever I think I've seized the advantage she ends up being one step ahead of me . . . she's told me a little bit about Suigetsu's plans and . . . it's impressive stuff."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Do you believe her?"

"Why would she lie to me?"

"To impress you?" Sakura suggested.

Sasuke shook his head, "I just . . . I feel like there are no good options, I can either march to my death with Shikamaru or keep serving with Suigetsu knowing you're probably going to get killed and I could have stopped it by bringing you with me instead of leaving you with him."

"Where is this aggression towards Shikamaru coming from anyway?" Sakura asked, "The two of you are comrades, aren't you?"

"It isn't bad enough that he lost Konoha in the first place, why did he wait four years to take it back?"

"That was Naruto's decision, Naruto said he wanted to-"

"Naruto _left _three years ago, I would have attacked during that time, all he did was let the enemy become entrenched. I could understand if you had all been raising a greater force but you barely increased your numbers at all!"

"What were we going to do? A lot of the families that got out of Konoha settled in Kumogakure, most of the young men who would have become ninja were either there or had been conscripted as soldiers of the Land of Fire before Konoha fell, and a lot of the young women didn't want to fight at all."

"So you _make _them fight!" Sasuke said angrily, "Besides, what about the ninja I was sending you? I was finding ninja and sending them to your island, I must have sent a few dozen in those four years."

"Sasuke we almost never got ninja at the island. I mean sometimes we'd get a boat of civilians, family members from Konoha, or soldiers looking for their families, we got a few ninja usually disguised because they didn't believe we were really a safe haven, maybe _half _mentioned you. Sasuke-kun if you were sending us dozens of ninja then most of them weren't making it to us."

Sasuke looked troubled, "But . . . what could have been happening to them?"

"Maybe they went to Lightning instead?" Sakura suggested.

"No, no, I sent them to you, the ones who wanted to go to Lightning just went to Lightning, but we had a deal worked out for boats from the land of Waves for those who wanted to go to the island."

"Well, since every ship we _did_ get was escorted in by your _friend _Karin, maybe she's the one you should be asking." Sakura said, though she didn't like to think that Mist, who'd supposedly kept them safe for four years had been taking their people prisoner or something.

But a chance to diminish Karin in Sasuke's mind? Well she knew she _should _be able to pass that up, she just didn't want to.

Sasuke didn't say anything, he just seemed to be thinking about it.

Sakura didn't say anything either, she wasn't sure _what _to say next.

At length Sasuke said, "If anything happens surrender; you're too important for Orochimaru to execute. You won't gain anything by dying, if Konoha's forces are finished just surrender, and I'll rescue you."

It was an odd, almost infuriating thing to say, and yet Sakura couldn't help but feel a little flattered that Sasuke _would _rescue her specifically.

She didn't let it show though, instead she just said, "It won't come to that Sasuke. We're going to win this war, you'll see."

Sasuke smiled weakly, "I hope so. And I hope we win the next one too, but then I barely know who 'we' are anymore."

Sakura had nothing to say. Some days _she _wasn't too sure either.

* * *

Kotaro sat up in bed, it was midday and he couldn't sleep any more.

Besides, the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, something was about to-

"Kotaro . . ." A voice whispered.

Kotaro frowned, he was . . . hmm, well he actually couldn't remember how old he was, but he knew whatever the age he was too old to believe in monsters under the bed anymore. Nevertheless under the bed was where the noise was coming from.

He didn't have weapons in his room, Lord Orochimaru thought it was a bad idea . . . or something, he couldn't quite remember, but he knew that if whoever or whatever was under his bed thought he was defenseless they were wrong.

"Kotaro, are you awake?" The voice whispered again, and Kotaro gradually came to realize that the voice belonged to Kasumi.

"What do you want?" He asked irritably.

"Oh good . . . I couldn't tell when I came in if you were awake of not . . . come under the bed."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Why?" Kotaro demanded.

"We had a bargain, didn't we? I mean I think we did . . . I promised you something, right? I have this really strong feeling like I promised to do something important for you because you did something for me."

Kotaro blinked. A girl had snuck into his room, hidden under his bed and was asking him to join her down there talking about having promised him something . . . well naturally being a young man at the age of . . . whatever the heck his age _was_, the first thing that came to mind was, well . . .

"Wouldn't that be easier _on _the bed, instead of under it?"

Kasumi didn't answer for a very long time, and she sounded very uncertain when she whispered, "I don't think that was what I promised you . . . at least I'm pretty sure it wasn't . . ."

"Oh . . . sorry . . . what was it then?" Kotaro asked.

"I think I was going to . . . I'm _almost_ certain I was going to take you to see your dad. If I try really hard, I can remember you wanted to see him, and I can get you to him."

"Now?" Kotaro asked.

"When else? I might not remember later . . . _you_ don't even remember now."

Kotaro certainly couldn't argue with that, and his mind was starting to feel pretty clear . . . clearer than usual anyway. He didn't know if this was some trick or some kind of mean joke, but for some reason he felt like he needed to find out.

If it was true, Kasumi might just take him to his father.

And for all Kasumi's talk of her own strong feelings, Kotaro's strong feelings told him that his father would know just what to do.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	55. One Red Eye

**Chapter Fifty Three**

Kasumi watched the darkness in a way that only a Hattori could.

To her the shadows were like light, a gift from her ancestors along with her ability to move through them and even take a passenger like Kotaro along for the ride.

She hoped Kotaro was grateful, though she didn't know why he should be. Her mind was a bit fuzzy, but somehow she felt like she was in danger of something . . . risking something.

But all she could remember was she'd made him a promise, it had something to do with his father and she had a strong impression that she knew where to look.

They reached an empty cell block, she emerged from her shadow and brought Kotaro along with her.

"Where is this?" He demanded.

"Dunno." Kasumi admitted.

"I thought you knew where you were going!" Kotaro said sharply.

Kasumi shrugged, "I know where I'm going but I don't know the names of the sights along the way. Do _you _even remember the name of the wing of the palace you live in?"

Kotaro was quiet for a moment, then he whispered, "You're right, I'm sorry . . . are we close?"

"You're close enough . . ." A voice said, Kasumi spun around and saw a tall blond man emerge from the shadows.

She hated herself, she should have seen him.

She reached for her shuriken but got an overwhelming feeling that there was no need.

"You two don't have a lot of time," The man said and he laughed, "I'm sorry, I just can't believe . . . I can't believe this worked."

"What?" Kotaro demanded.

"What do you want from us? What worked?" Kasumi demanded.

"I'm one of the ninja charged with monitoring your thoughts . . . we keep a tabs on your brains by keeping in contact with your bodies while you're in the channeling chambers, but we can also watch you through security devices. As long as we can see you and we're in range you're susceptible to our Jutsu."

"What are you talking about?" Kasumi demanded but Kotaro was a step ahead of her.

"You're the reason we can never remember anything!"

"No . . . Kabuto's the reason for that. We're in charge of stunting any thoughts you get that Kabuto can't erase, we're in charge of keeping you from trying to do anything treasonous . . . among other thoughts we're meant to plant."

"Like what?" Kasumi blinked.

"The only reason nobody's looking for you is because they think the two of you need . . . privacy right now." The man said simply.

Kasumi recoiled, "You have _that _much control over us?"

"If we did you'd be a glowing mother to be by now," The older ninja growled, "you can resist things that truly go against what you want . . . at the time I was ordered to breed the two of you neither of you actually wanted to and so I couldn't force the matter . . . nor did I really want to. It did however give me an opportunity I hadn't expected, one I know Orochimaru and Kabuto don't realize I've seized."

"What do you mean?" Kasumi insisted.

"The two of you are romantically entangled as far as Orochimaru knows. He's not happy about it, I don't _completely _understand whether or not the orders to breed you came from him or Kabuto or someone lower down the food chain, but the point is you two have been given a certain amount of . . . leeway so that you can . . . perform."

Kotaro looked intrigued, but Kasumi was horrified.

"Y-you would do that to me?" She demanded, "You would _breed _me like an _animal_?" She screamed.

The blond shinobi scowled at her, "What the hell do you think _any _of us are to Orochimaru besides animals? Anyway I told you the two of you were too resistant to it, and if I couldn't do it no one Orochimaru's got could have so don't worry about it happening ever again. I've had to tell them that you came around on your own, that once we put the idea in your heads you found it worth pursuing on your own terms. In that light Orochimaru has decided to allow it for whatever reason, but I don't think he knows what we're really doing."

"And what are we doing?" Kotaro demanded, but Kasumi was covering her ears.

She didn't want anyone in her head, she didn't want anyone making her do . . . anything, really . . . she wanted to make her own decisions.

"Not now!" Her mental assaulter snapped at her, "I know you've had a shock but you kids . . . no, you _ninja _deserve better than to be lied to any further. What are we up to? We're up to getting you to your father, I can't get there alone but with two members of the Sound Five it won't be any trouble."

"Who are you? Why do you serve Orochimaru and why are you betraying him now?" Kotaro asked.

"That's not important."

"It's important to me. I'm not going anywhere with you until I know the answer." Kotaro said.

The man lowered his gaze, he whispered, "My name is Inoichi . . . Yamanaka Inoichi. I was a Konoha Jounin, I was captured during the fall . . . they made me serve them because I thought they had my daughter, Ino . . . you knew her once, she was your Sensei's teammate . . . you probably don't remember either of them, and that's Kabuto's doing . . . they have about six of my clansmen, myself included monitoring you five . . . three of us at a time, I've been assigned to the two of you for a six hour window that we're already three hours into, and it's only out of loyalty to me that my clansmen haven't reported me away from my post yet; if someone comes by their list of excuses will be short and our time will be too so we have to move now."

Kotaro frowned, he put his hand on Kasumi's shoulder but not to comfort her, he turned her to face him.

"This is your chance to make them pay for it."

Kasumi didn't want to say anything. The mere thought that her mind was laid bare before strangers, that they could look at, laugh at, change or remove her thoughts and desires . . . it was . . . it was about the most horrible violation she could imagine.

It was practically-no it was _exactly _rape. She'd been mentally raped, psychologically violated and Orochimaru, her master, had not only condoned it he'd _ordered_ it.

"If it makes you feel any better," Inoichi said, "if this works we'll get them back big time. If it fails you won't remember anything I've told you and I'll be put to death so at least one of the people responsible for doing this to you will be dead."

He offered her and Kotaro each a kunai, they didn't carry their own in their real bodies since the Emperor didn't allow it . . . he probably feared they'd harm themselves with them, and Kasumi was tempted to do just that . . . but she knew she didn't want to die that way, it wasn't worth it.

She didn't know what she _wanted_ to do, she didn't know what she _could _do . . . she just laughed weakly and forced a smile as she took the kunai. "That'll do for now . . ."

* * *

Sakura leaned against the wall and watched Sasuke appraisingly. Sasuke didn't like it, it almost felt like she was judging him for all his sins.

Sins she shouldn't even know about . . .

Should he tell her?

What business was it of hers?

Part of him felt like the reason he'd come to her in the first place was to . . . confess.

To tell her everything . . .

He shook his head slowly and said, "Sakura, you . . . know how I feel about you?"

Sakura folded her arms, "You're pretty good about hiding that, actually."

"In Kumo we-"

"Kumogakure was four years ago . . . and we'd just survived a near massacre. That . . . _event _could have meant anything, what was I supposed to think?" Sakura asked in a tone that was neither harsh nor judgmental.

Still Sasuke felt as if she'd punched him, he supposed that really he couldn't blame her for not seeing it as the ultimate confession he'd meant it to be . . .

After all he'd been gone shortly after; he'd left with Endo and Hitomi sparing just a few words for Sakura, the woman he'd . . .

He lowered his gaze, "I do love you, Sakura."

Sakura's expression softened, and she whispered, "Yeah, I know."

"When I left I didn't think we'd be apart for too long . . . but we were. When I headed for the island I thought we'd be together again until the day we died . . . but I was pulled away."

"You let yourself be pulled away." Sakura accused.

"I . . . well I guess that's true . . ." Sasuke said. This didn't feel right, he didn't like this conversation at all . . . he was being too weak, he should just grab her by the hand, tell her the facts then leave, not stammer and apologize like a child who'd broken a window.

And yet with what he had to confess he felt about as defenseless as a child who'd broken a window with both his parents standing over his shoulders.

He lowered his gaze and whispered, "I've done many things for the sake of winning a war and I don't even know what side I'm on anymore . . . Sakura I did something that you might not be able to forgive me for."

"I've forgiven you for an awful lot." Sakura said and Sasuke felt the stab of regret that those reminders of his past brought on.

The years he'd spent serving Orochimaru, hunting his brother, causing trouble for Konoha . . . fighting against his friends . . .

He swallowed and whispered, "Karin offered to give me information . . . for a price." He looked at Sakura, "You deserve to know that I paid that price . . . and you deserve to know what it was."

Sakura folded her arms again and said, "Sasuke . . . you deserve to know that I don't care. I love you, whatever she asked you to do I don't care . . . and I don't want to know."

"I think maybe you should, it might change how you feel." Sasuke said.

"Honestly? What could you have done for Karin that would change my opinion of you? What can she have asked of you in the space of time since you left the island, that would damn you in my mind? Sasuke . . . no offense but you've done so much _worse_ in the past that . . . for me at least, I cant imagine not being able to forgive you for anything, especially when you actually seem _repentant, _which is such a refreshing change of pace."

Sasuke frowned. He wanted to tell himself that she'd guessed, and she didn't want to accept it, or maybe she did accept it and it just didn't matter.

But he was an Uchiha. He was the _last _Uchiha; he couldn't be a coward.

He told her, "In exchange for some of the names that Suigetsu is hunting, and what I can only hope really is truth about the Mizukage's murderer . . . Karin demanded that I-"

Sakura silenced him with a kiss, as their lips parted she whispered, "I told you I didn't want to know."

"You deserved to know." Sasuke challenged, standing up.

Sakura didn't say anything for a while, then she said, "I don't think you need to say the words, Sasuke . . . I think I know where this is going and . . . I just think it'll be easier if you don't say the words."

"I'm sorry," He offered lamely. "Maybe this is something that shouldn't be easy or even _possible_ to forgive."

"I told you already that I could forgive you for anything." Sakura said.

"Even this?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "You can't be serious . . ."

Sakura laughed softly and said, "Honestly? I might be so furious that I'm not thinking with my right mind . . . I suggest you take advantage of that, I mean it has been _four _years . . . for _one _of us, at least." The sentence cut Sasuke like a knife, but Sakura spoke on and wrapped her arms around him, "Just because I forgive you doesn't mean you wont have to show me just how sincere you are."

* * *

Kotaro followed Inoichi down the twists and turns of the cellblock-at least he was pretty sure it was a cellblock.

"We'll be there soon, we won't have much time. We'll need to rescue Kakashi-san, then the four of us need to get out of this city."

"I don't think I can do that," Kotaro said, "don't think I can leave my mother here to suffer alone."

"You won't have a choice, besides if we succeed in everything _except _getting you out then you may be forced to bring your father back in, is that what you want?" Inoichi demanded.

Kotaro didn't answer; obviously the answer was "no" but he just felt like he couldn't leave without his mother, like there was some _reason _that he at least needed to stay.

But he'd ask his father.

"We're here!" Inoichi whispered, stopping at a door.

"What's the matter?" Kotaro asked when the old Jounin didn't enter.

"No guards . . ." Inoichi grumbled.

But a voice . . . a distantly familiar voice called to them; "Come on in, it's not locked."

Inoichi's expression darkened, but Kotaro couldn't stop himself.

He practically tore the door open, he rushed inside to find not a damp, dark prison cell . . . but a well lit reading room.

His father, his _father, _stood inside, a book in hand and dressed in the finery of an Otogakure noble.

Kotaro didn't know what to think, but his father smiled through his oh so familiar mask and said, "Kotaro-kun, it's so good to see you here. I expected you sooner or later. Yamanaka, I'm a little surprised to see you here too . . . but it's a very pleasant surprise, my friend. We were wondering who would be leading the kids here."

Inoichi's shoulders slumped and he shook his head; "I tried . . ."

Kakashi smiled, "I'm sure you did. Don't worry, the guards will be here soon to take you away, you look like you need a very_ long_ rest."

Inoichi scoffed, "This isn't over, you-"

"Shh!" Kakashi hissed, "I'm trying to talk to my son. So, son . . . how have you been? Brought your girlfriend I see, that's pleasant. Are you helping your mother win the war?"

"I . . . yeah, I guess . . ." Kotaro said, he felt confused.

"That's good." Kakashi said, "You know she really has been fighting so long, it'd be so wonderful if you could help her finally get the reward she deserves; I hope you're working hard to bring Uchiha Sasuke safely to the palace so the Emperor can be reborn in him."

"I am . . ." Kotaro said, but he shook his head, "Why are you dressed like that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Kakashi asked.

"You're not from Sound, you're from Leaf!" Kotaro said, he was _sure _of it.

"Don't be silly . . . I'm married to your mother, that makes me a noble of Hidden in Sound."

"You never married mom!" Kotaro protested.

Kakashi smiled but that smile seemed false, unreal, "Why would your mother and I have you outside of wedlock? She's was Lord Orochimaru's princess after all, it would have been scandalous."

Kotaro felt anger rising in him, Inoichi said, "That's right, don't believe him! You _know_ he's lying!"

"Silence, Yamanaka, or things will be _far _worse for you!" Kakashi barked, then he gently placed his hand on Kotaro's shoulder, "Son . . . you were born a ninja of the village hidden in Sound, don't you remember?"

"No, no! Konoha! I'm a ninja from the village hidden in leaves!" Kotaro insisted.

"No, you and I and your mother _infiltrated _Konohagakure, that's why you have . . . memories of time spent there . . . but we were always ninja of Sound, we raised you to love and serve the Emperor, to serve Lord Orochimaru, don't you remember any of that?"

"No!" Kotaro said, "No, I don't!"

"Then it seems you've been much too distracted by your little girlfriend." Kakashi chuckled, patting him on the shoulder and turning to Kasumi, "And how are you? What brings you here? Conflict of memory of your own?"

"I . . . I promised to bring Kotaro . . ." Kasumi offered.

"Is that so? What a dutiful girl, you'll make a fine wife someday."

"No . . ." Kasumi shook her head, "He's just a . . . a comrade, he doesn't even like me."

"Oh? Well we can change that . . . we can change _anything_." Kakashi said with a smile.

Kotaro's eyes narrowed, "You're not my father."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Hmm? What are you talking about?"

"My father is Hatake Kakashi of the village hidden in leaves, he's no traitor he's no servant of Orochimaru! He's a prisoner the same as my mother, you can't be him!"

Kakashi looked unsure for the slightest of moments, and Kotaro knew.

Why hadn't there been guards outside? Because the guards were _inside_.

He sprang forward towards his opponent but suddenly the reading lamp came to life and reached out for him.

He felt the arm that grabbed him even though he didn't see it. He knew he was in a Genjutsu, and he acted accordingly, drawing the kunai Inoichi had given him and stabbing at the hand he couldn't see.

Blood seemed to appear from out of nowhere, the lamp shuddered and fell over, with it the entire illusion shattered.

The shinobi who had so expertly portrayed the lamp hadn't fallen over himself, but he had taken his bleeding hand away from Kotaro.

Kasumi seemed unsure but Inoichi was by Kotaro's side the moment the illusion failed.

Kotaro glared at the two sound ninja before him, especially at the one who'd pretended to be his father.

"We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way," Kotaro told them. He could see his father in the cell behind them, he was dressed in a gray prisoner's robe, a leather mask covered half his face-or more importantly, his Sharingan eye-but Kotaro still knew it was him, the real him.

His free eye was set firmly on Kotaro and in that eye Kotaro knew backing down was not an option even if Orochimaru himself arrived. He was so _close _to being reunited with his father . . .

The enemy ninja both laughed, the one who had impersonated his father said, "We only need to hold you for sixty seconds, then our reinforcements will be here along with the Emperor himself to _handle _you."

Kotaro smirked, "He'd have to be pretty stupid to come here. There's three of us and soon there'll be none of you."

The guard smirked, Kotaro saw in the corner of his eye Kasumi, shaking and looking confused melt into her shadow and back away into the darkness.

He wasn't pleased, but he had to admit she was right.

He didn't like her as a girlfriend or even a friend, she was only his comrade among the Five; she'd taken him to his father and now she owed him nothing, it was really better for her to leave before things got too messy.

The ninja who'd impersonated his father smiled at Kotaro, it was a friendly smile, "See? She knows where her loyalties lie. It's two to two and you have even less time now . . . so, care to do this the easy way or-"

Kotaro didn't let the man finish his sentence, he sprang and slammed his fist into the older ninja's stomach.

The shinobi doubled over, there was nothing around to use for substitution and he hadn't been a clone, he'd taken that hit.

And Kotaro quickly took his kunai and slashed out, hoping to end his enemy's life, but he settled for drawing blood as his foe leapt back.

The other ninja rushed in but Inoichi sprang forward and thrust his hand out, snapping the man's gaze from Kotaro to him, the two Jounin struggled against each other with rapid Taijutsu, Kotaro needed to trust that Inoichi would handle his battle well enough alone because Kotaro still had his own to worry about.

He rushed forward and struck a few blows, but he fought the desire to use Orochimaru's cursed mark.

He didn't know if using it might somehow alert Orochimaru, and if the guard had been bluffing about help being on the way-and Kotaro hoped he was-then Kotaro didn't want Orochimaru to know where he was or that he was fighting.

Besides, he was pretty confident that he could kill this man himself.

He fought, his kunai in one hand sweeping, slicing and stabbing at his opponent, keeping him off guard while his other hand formed hand seals by itself, not an easy task but one that Okatsu-sensei had insisted-quite painfully-that he learn.

His Jutsu complete he stomped his foot and saw a stone from the floor behind his opponent shoot out of the ground and strike the man hard in the back, throwing him off.

The man staggered back and Kotaro charged again.

Kotaro noticed a blue flash as his opponent drew a katana and shouted, "I am one of Orochimaru's elite guard, I am privy to all that goes on in his inner circle and I _know _him to be a living god! I will hold you here, even if I have to beat you half to death, I will not fail the Emp-"

He fell silent unable to finish his sentence or even scream as his chest suddenly exploded outward, a hand shrouded in lightning protruding from the gaping wound.

The man's eyes hazed over and he fell to the ground dead, behind him stood an unchained Hatake Kakashi, supported by Hattori Kasumi.

Kotaro quickly understood that Kasumi had retreated to the shadows to fool the other ninja, then snuck past them while they fought, probably using their own shadows to help avoid detection.

She'd gotten to his father's cell and with her shadow stepping ability had pulled him out leaving behind the manacles that held him. The realization made Kotaro dislike Kasumi _a lot _less.

And Hatake Kakashi, after four years of imprisonment, had been all too ready to jump right into the fight, the flash of blue light that Kotaro had seen hadn't come from his opponent, but from his father preparing to end the fight in a single Jutsu.

Well, half the fight, there was still the matter of Inoichi's opponent to defeat, and time was running short.

Hatake Kakashi, the _real _Hatake Kakashi, removed the mask and opened his Sharingan eye.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	56. Sound Five Down One?

**Chapter Fifty-Four**

Sakura woke up in a bit of a daze to pounding on her door.

_Oh . . . right . . . Ino . . . _She thought.

Had she dozed off?

Yes, she must have . . . ah well. She sat up from . . . the floor? She must have fallen out of her chair . . . something like that. No chair . . . where had she been sitting?

More banging on the door, Ino shouted, "I know you're in there!"

Sakura yawned and half asleep got to her feet. She thought _hmm . . . cold . . . open the door and shut Ino up . . . why am I cold?_

With a yawn she opened the door just as Ino was shouting, "Do you think I-"

Sakura didn't find out what Ino was going to say because the blond was very quiet once the door opened.

"I know, I overslept, I'm sorry." Sakura yawned.

Ino still didn't say anything. She just stared.

That was rather rude; Sakura began to regain her senses enough to take offense when Ino asked, "Bit chilly?"

"Yeah actually . . ." Sakura began then she was hit by the memory and the realization like a boulder hurtled from a catapult.

She slammed the door in Ino's face and grabbed the nearest clothing article, Sasuke's Mist flak jacket, and threw it on over herself, opened the door a crack and told Ino to, "Bug off, I'll be out in a second!"

Her friend from childhood laughed hysterically, "Just in case you're wondering if this is one of those dreams where you show up for work naked, it _isn't_! Oh my gosh I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life!"

"Glad I could rock your world like that," Sakura said irately, grabbing her clothes and dressing herself quickly.

Sasuke sat up, awake but in far less of a hurry.

Sakura could just hear the realization in Ino's voice when she said, "Wait a minute, you're not _alone _in there, I can tell! Who's in there with you?

Sasuke seemed almost as bewildered as Sakura waking up on the cold floor of a servant's room that was practically a broom closet. She threw his flak jacket at him and shouted through the door, "We're not teenagers anymore, Ino, grow up!"

Sasuke yawned and said, "What's she worked up about? It's not like we've never . . . hmm . . ." He considered, "You know I guess we never told anyone about that time in Kumogakure."

"She's my best friend, of course she knows about Kumogakure!" Sakura said.

"I never told anyone." Sasuke said.

"You're not a woman." Sakura told him.

"Well if I were there'd have been nothing to tell." Sasuke observed.

"Hah." Sakura scoffed, "I still think I'd have gotten ya."

"As a woman?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, then shook his head, "No, you know what, let's just leave it at that before this conversation gets any more . . . odd."

"What time do you think it is?" Sakura asked.

"Half past "get back to work" for the both of us." Sasuke grumbled. "This was a bad idea."

"It wasn't so much an idea as a reaction." Sakura shrugged, pulling her shoes on. She frowned at Sasuke, "You're . . . done with Karin, right?"

Sasuke looked away, "I don't always like the things I do, or the reasons I do them . . . I . . ."

"You're still pursuing power . . . I get that. I know. You don't like being around people who have power you don't have, I _understand_, but when you give in to Karin's demands no matter what she's offering you're giving _her _the power. Trust me Sasuke, we've dealt with her for three years, she's not a good person, she's not trustworthy. Honestly, the idea that she might have been diverting your ninja to Kirigakure to strengthen _their _numbers instead seems so unbelievably logical to me that I'm shocked none of us ever even thought of it!"

"If Shikamaru and the gambler girl didn't think of it maybe it's not happening." Sasuke suggested.

"Emiko doesn't guess unless she's asked something, and sometimes she'll refuse to answer if she sees the consequences as being too dire. If we'd challenged Kirigakure about stealing our people, they'd have wiped us out . . . heck I wouldn't be surprised if she knew the whole time and just didn't say anything. And Shikamaru, well he never expected any ninja to be on the ships so there was no reason for him to consider it."

Sasuke shook his head and finished dressing, "Well . . . like I said we aught to get back to work . . ."

"Yeah . . . want to have a little fun with Ino?"

"You think she's still out there?" Sasuke blinked.

Sakura smirked and explained her idea, a moment later, she opened the door and stepped out along with Sasuke, transformed into some random woman.

Ino was leaning against the door, smirking originally but her look turned to confusion.

"Huh . . . um . . . yeah well . . . who's this?" Ino asked.

"Huh? Oh I dunno. Some woman on the street, super cheap." Sakura shrugged.

Sasuke gave her a look as if to say, "cheap? me?"

Ino didn't seem to have anything to say for a while and Sasuke made a quick exit. Sakura folded her arms and smirked at Ino, "What's up?"

"Um . . . well . . ."

"Something wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, no! No . . . uh . . . no it all makes sense now." Ino said.

Sakura's smirk disappeared, "Huh?"

"I mean since childhood you've always seemed . . . oh you know . . . but hey, now I get it, and that's uh . . . that's great. You uh . . . found your true self." Ino shrugged.

Sakura felt her eye twitch, "Oh for the love of-"

"And does Sasuke enjoy the whole drag thing?" Ino asked with a snide grin.

Sakura sighed and shook her head, "I just can't get anything past you, can I?"

"It helps when you put your ear against the door." Ino smiled.

* * *

Kotaro had been keeping a mental count of the seconds, he doubted that the enemy ninja could really get help in sixty seconds, but he didn't know the conditions to whatever trap Jutsu had gone off, didn't know

By the fiftieth second his father managed to pull the enemy Jounin off of Inoichi, who slammed a kunai into the enemy's throat.

He noticed that his father didn't move the way he remembered. He was sluggish, probably due to years of captivity in a small cell.

"Fifteen seconds." Kasumi said.

Kotaro was glad she'd had the presence of mind to keep the count up as well.

"What are we doing?" Kasumi asked him.

"How many people can you get out with your shadow?" Kotaro asked.

"One, for like ten minutes." Kasumi said.

"Two for five?" Kotaro asked.

"More like two for three," Kasumi said, "And we're running out of time."

"Get these two out of the palace, out a window down a wall." Kotaro said.

"Kotaro, you can't stay here." Kakashi said.

"They won't kill me. Inoichi has information the resistance needs, they're in Waves now . . . I think. And you . . . I don't know what I can do for mom, but _you're _getting out of here."

Kakashi watched Kotaro, "I could help you."

"You can do more good for the resistance. If you stay here I'm right back where we started, if you're out they can't use you against me."

"Kotaro . . . I-"

"Hate me later!" Kasumi shouted, grabbing Kakashi and Inoichi's hands and falling into her shadow.

The large shadow shot under the door and Kotaro recognized that the mental count was finished.

He was genuinely surprised when he saw sand ripple under the door, form a claw and rip the thing off its hinges.

"Sixty seconds to mobilize the Five? That's impressive." Kotaro said as Yukio charged into the room followed by Shiroi, Kurai, and Kabuto.

"Don't be an ass, we can't all get here as fast as you, but we all felt the call when the guards' Jutsu went off three minutes ago." Shiroi said, and Kotaro realized that indeed the trap probably sprang when they'd stepped through the door. "Where are they, Kotaro?" Shiroi asked, rushing over to his side, "Who was it?"

Kotaro swallowed hard.

One chance to severely limit Orochimaru . . .

Would it be right?

He reached out and grabbed Shiroi's hand and pulled her closer, took his kunai and slammed it into her throat.

She couldn't have gotten into a host body in sixty seconds, Kabuto must have summoned them, or brought them personally.

While the guards before hadn't had anything to use for substitution Jutsu the same wasn't true of Shiroi.

One of the dead guards replaced her, receiving a second kunai to the throat.

Kotaro felt strikes on his side and he leapt back, a swarm of insects came towards him but stopped short of attack him.

"This isn't a transformation? Why would the real Kotaro attack _me_?" Shiroi demanded.

"It seems he's right there . . . ask _him_." Yukio said, taking a few steps towards Kotaro . . . threatening steps.

"Kotaro, you're making a very poor decision right now." Kabuto said, "In a moment the issue with our Controllers will be resolved, and Kasumi will be back in our control."

"Less than three minutes?" Kotaro smirked.

Kabuto's eyes narrowed, "That depends on the level of resistance they provide, whether or not we need to kill one of them to get them to cooperate."

"What are Controllers? What's going on?" Yukio sounded confused.

Kotaro's eyes narrowed, "We are _not _Sound Shinobi! The idea of using five of the most promising youths is a good one so long as you have the _loyalty _of those youths, and you knew you couldn't just have it. Thus . . ."

Kabuto smiled, "Thus Controllers, very good. It would be more impressive if I didn't know that Inoichi had ample time to tell you everything."

Kotaro looked around, "Kurai, how many times have you had a thought that didn't feel like something you'd think? How many times have you felt a sudden surge of loyalty to the Emperor?"

Kurai's expression didn't change, "Is Kotaro our foe, Shogun?"

"Yukio, don't you ever feel even the slightest bit odd with the things you're asked to do, the things you can and can't remember?" Kotaro asked.

Yukio kept his eyes on Kotaro, but his sand came to his hands in the form of a pair of blades.

Shiroi laughed, "Don't even bother trying to turn me against the right path, Kotaro."

Kotaro smiled at her, "Trust me, I know you're the one person they _never _have to control."

Shiroi smirked, she looked _proud_.

Kotaro didn't stop smiling, he said "In two more minutes I win."

"In two more minutes you may never walk again . . . we don't need your _entire _body intact for channeling." Kabuto said.

Kotaro lunged forward, knife leading towards Shiroi.

He knew Kurai would stop him, but turnabout was fair play, he substituted with the other guard's body and appeared in its place, next to Yukio.

He grabbed Yukio's wrists and stomped on the ground, causing a rock to shoot up and slam into the boy's face.

Kotaro then kicked Yukio away, he hit the ground face first.

But he wasn't done, he wasn't unconscious.

He rolled and came to his feet but Kotaro had already moved on. He rushed out of the room and into the hallway.

There were still more ninja there, his mental count told him that there was still close to two minutes left before Kasumi's chakra would run out.

He sprang on one of the ninja and spun around, kicking the man in the chest and using that to propel him back into the room.

He activated his seal, strength rippled through his muscles as he saw Shiroi emerging from the door.

She and the others had tried to pursue him, they'd been right behind him out the door.

He slammed into Shiroi, striking her hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of her.

She still had the presence of mind to jab him twice, sealing off two of his chakra points.

They hit the ground hard, he pressed his knee against one of her kidneys and pressed on her neck as he began to rise to his feet, but a blast of sand threw him back.

He formed the hand seals for Chidori and pressed against the sand, though the sand was cutting this was his natural body and his restoration ability, gifted so kindly by Orochimaru, would make the cuts nothing but a memory that Kabuto's methods wouldn't let him remember.

Speaking of remember . . . why was he fighting Shiroi?

He pushed through the sand, felt it cut his skin, cut deeply into his cheek, and then suddenly in the sand came insects, dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands?

They latched onto his skin, the sand seemed to just pass over them, it was only Kotaro that it was cutting. The bugs fought for the blood in his cuts, were they drinking it?

He felt weaker, his mind went foggier, his Chidori began to fail . . .

He recognized what was happening without recognizing it; he knew he had to fight . . . but not kill . . . no, if he could kill he _must_ . . . but they were his comrades-no, they were Sound slaves.

Slaves? No, servants . . . lucky to be loyal to the Emperor, his _mother _was loyal to the Emperor to the point of offering her own body as a host vessel . . .

No, she was a slave, a prisoner.

Why was he fighting? He felt like he needed to fight . . . for at least a minute longer . . .

Yukio kicked him roughly in the back, Kurai punched him in the stomach and Shiroi sealed off another four chakra points in rapid succession . . . why were they fighting him?

No, why wasn't he fighting back more aggressively?

His chakra was being eaten up . . . why were they fighting? Where was he?

He was in the palace, he was safe . . . they wouldn't kill him, he needed to stop fighting back . . .

_No!_ A voice screamed in his head, _Fight, you need more time!_

It was _his _voice . . . it was so strange to recognize his own mental voice as if it were a stranger's . . . but the voice rattling off in his head was the stranger, wasn't it? The voice telling him to give in . . .

His eyes hardened, he heard the words in his head, "sparring, you're just sparring, you're losing so just give up, go to the medical wing and have your injuries looked after . . . sparring . . ."

Kotaro's temper flared, the lightning in his hand came back at full strength and as Shiroi lunged in again he grasped her wrist with one hand and punched for her head meaning to knock it clean off her shoulders.

A wall of sand flew up in front of his hand, but it didn't stop him, he cut right through the sand, Shiroi screamed.

He felt a concussive blast in his head screaming, "Simulation! Sparring! Exercise! Do not kill her! **Do not kill her!**"

Those words didn't save her.

It was the insects still on Kotaro, still leeching his chakra and poisoning his blood that saved her, when his fist made contact with her face Chidori was all but gone.

Shiroi got a badly bruised, slightly burnt cheek . . . nothing her own recovery powers wouldn't fix.

Kotaro fell to his knees, gripping his head.

Shiroi fell to the ground too, holding her face, but she didn't scream in pain, she just lay there holding her face.

At length she said, "Damn it, Hatake, when you spar you go all out."

Kotaro laughed weakly . . . sparring? Yeah . . . that's what he'd been doing . . .

"What choice did I have, it was three on one . . ." He said with a soft laugh . . .

His enemies . . . no, his friends, his comrades helped him and Shiroi up, Kabuto, his . . . friend, his master's closest ally . . . Kabuto slapped him on the shoulder and said, "You may have lost this round, but you're still head and shoulders above the rest of them individually. Putting you against three is the only challenge you face anymore, Kotaro. Who knows, maybe soon we'll have you sparring against four."

"Yeah . . ." Kotaro said, blinking a few times to clear his head . . . his head was so foggy . . . "Did somebody hit me?"

At length Yukio answered, "I think I did . . ." he said, sounding unsure, "Bit foggy though, I mean that was one heck of a melee."

Kotaro laughed, "Yeah . . . man it's practically a blur to me . . . where are we again?"

"We're in the palace." Kurai said unhelpfully.

"Yeah . . . it's safe here." Shiroi said, then laughed, "Heck I pity any poor suckers stuck outside this paradise."

"Yeah . . . I'd never want to leave." Kotaro said, but it felt like the words, even though they came out of his mouth, weren't his. "Damn," he said, "Yukio must have hit me harder than I thought . . . funniest thing though . . . I feel like I wanted to hold out for thirty more seconds . . ."

* * *

Kasumi felt the screams in her head as she led the two men to the gate of the palace.

Not the city . . .

She emerged from her shadow, "I can't get you any further, my chakra's dwindling and they're . . . they're so good at what they do!"

Inoichi put a hand on her shoulder, "I think we can make it from here . . . I wish I could say something to help you, something to help you shut them out . . ."

_Stop them, stop them, kill the traitor, arrest the prisoner! _Kasumi "thought" but she clutched the sides of her head, "You can!" She screamed just to hear herself over the voices in her head, there were two now, they knew what she was going to ask.

She looked at Kakashi, he looked so much like Kotaro . . . or maybe it was the other way around.

Either way she knew she could trust him to do what she knew needed to be done.

She swallowed, the voices in her head screamed and she could barely whisper, "Please . . . please . . . it'll hurt Orochimaru . . . it'll hurt his plans . . . please . . ."

"There's nothing we can do . . ." Inoichi said, "We could try to get you far enough away but I don't know the range, and you're too powerful for us to take against your will, if you fall under their control again before we get away-"

Kakashi raised a hand to silence his friend.

Kasumi looked into his eyes, "Please . . ." she pleaded, halfway between laughing and sobbing. They wouldn't let her say it and that made her want to say it even more . . . she fought and fought and she knew she was losing, her hands were shaking it was getting harder to breathe.

She had to try; she focused everything she had in her head . . .

"Please . . . k-k-kill me . . ." She whispered.

Kakashi nodded, Inoichi shook his head.

"Kakashi-san, you _can't_ just-"

Blue lightning flashed, Kasumi smiled.

It was her own smile.

"She doesn't deserve this, all this girl's been through," Inoichi was protesting.

"Now she can rest." Kakashi said, his Chidori slammed into her chest, burning through her skin, smashing through her ribs, obliterating her heart, and blasting through her spine, Kakashi's fist came out of her back, probably damaging her shoulder blade, not that she felt anything by then.

Her whole world was black, the pain had been immense while she felt it but in that final moment she thought hard; hoping the controllers would hear it, or see it or whatever they did.

_I win_. Hattori Kasumi thought.

And she died.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	57. Darker Days Ahead

**Chapter Fifty-Five**

Eri leaned against a wall drinking a bottle of milk, humming to herself in-between gulps.

"What's that tune?" Daisuke asked.

"Random." Eri said, then drank a bit more.

Daisuke raised his gaze from the pile of plans he was going over, and raised an eyebrow at her, "Again with the milk?"

"Duh-huh." Eri yawned.

Daisuke sighed, "That is pretty much the _definition _of an old wives' tale. Besides you know it's probably not what you drink."

"You'll see, and when we're married you'll _thank _me." Eri scoffed.

"If your sister were here she'd tell you that her guess is it's not what you drink." Daisuke sighed. He didn't need to name names, Eri knew who he meant.

"Well if _your _sister were here she'd tell you to shut up." Eri smirked.

"Probably true." Daisuke accepted and continued looking over his plans. "These new formulas are never going to work . . ."

Eri heard shouts coming from the street, Daisuke raised his eyes again, this time with a look of interest. "The heck is going on?" The youngest Ishida daughter wondered.

Daisuke slid out of his chair and rushed to the door of her shop, he opened it just in time to leap back and put a hand in front of her, "Stay back!"

"What? Why?" Eri demanded, but she saw over his shoulder the small army of armored men rushing through the streets, several people came into the shop just to take refuge and be out of their way.

"What's going on?" Someone demanded.

"Ninja, a pair of ninja were running through the streets!"

"Over the rooftops, towards the gate!"

"They're way ahead of the troops!"

"Well good!" Eri sighed.

Someone looked at her in horror, "You _want _ninja in our city?"

Eri scoffed, "I want those ninja the heck _out _of our city! And if they leave without some of our noble honorable soldiers getting killed chasing them off so much the better right? Or do you not want your brothers and sons coming home for dinner tonight?"

The crowd seemed to accept that as reasonable enough, and Daisuke raised an eyebrow at her, but Eri just shrugged. It'd been a slip of the tongue and she had to cover her tracks up. The last thing she needed was for one of the Emperor's patrols to come knocking on her door.

And they didn't knock . . . they kicked it right open.

Two armored samurai stormed in and one of them shouted, "We are looking for Ishida Eri, and Oedo Daisuke!"

Daisuke stood forward, "What do you want?"

"You two are to be taken into custody, as people of importance your safety is paramount in this current crisis."

Which meant Orochimaru didn't want to risk Daisuke helping whoever those two ninja were, and was taking Eri along to make sure her boyfriend played nice . . .

Eri raised her hand, "Um, yeah I'm Ishida Eri but if you're taking me _and _Daisuke I won't have anyone to watch my shop, and I won't throw these people out in the street with dangerous ninja running around. Let's all just stay inside where it's safe until the all clear's sounded, it should be fine if you guys are guarding us, right?"

The crowd, not wanting to be on the streets murmured their agreement, and the now _four _Samurai, probably not knowing why these two individuals would be of any threat anyway hesitated before their leader finally nodded.

"Once it's safe on the streets then . . ." The Samurai said, sounding unsure.

"Excellent, that lets me finish my drink." Eri said brightly.

Eri smiled at Daisuke, that bought them _some _time.

* * *

Orochimaru was at war with himself, it was difficult even to keep his false face on as he stood over Kotaro in the medical wing.

Anko was displeased, far more so than she had been in years.

She was fighting more violently than she had in quite some time, she demanded to put her own hands on her son, to feel his forehead herself even though Orochimaru already knew he had a temperature.

Stupid maternal desires, stupid Anko.

Orochimaru was there by the boy's side, he had his own reasons for allowing that but he wasn't about to start acting like a mother to one of his slaves.

And Anko too was just a slave. He'd left far too much of her intact, he thought to her that if she didn't behave he'd destroy her, assimilate her completely, violating the agreement he'd kept with Kotaro for no reason beyond his own amusement.

He was perfectly content to release Anko when he got Sasuke, perfectly content to let Kotaro have his family back which had been why he'd left Kakashi alive and intact.

_Should have ripped his eye from his skull! _Orochimaru thought cruelly, but Anko's feelings for Kakashi weren't really as strong as her protective feelings for her son, and Kakashi was out. Anko could deal with that just fine.

Kotaro's eyes were barely open, but they were open. Anko wanted to remove the veiled mask that Orochimaru wore to disguise her face, she wanted to speak with her voice and he told her she'd lose that voice forever if she didn't shut her mind's proverbial mouth.

He stood stiff as a board, worried that if he moved at all Anko would take the opportunity to strike, she wasn't strong enough to just seize control of anything but she'd gotten quite good at suggesting things and if he wasn't careful sometimes his hand would drop something important, his foot would misstep, he was fairly certain that every time he bit his cheek while eating Anko was to blame.

"Kotaro-kun, your mother is desperate to know how you feel." Orochimaru offered, Anko calmed a bit to hear the answer.

And he unleashed hell on her, viciously beating her back into place, back into that corner of her own mind where she couldn't harm him or his plans.

Orochimaru didn't even hear Kotaro's answer, and neither did Anko, that pleased him and infuriated her.

_You will _always _lose to me, and if you keep it up I'll just move into a more suitable body . . . such as Kotaro-kun's. When that happens I'll see to it you live to spend every day in chains watching me use your son's body according to my whims._

It didn't shut her up, but it quieted her down. The beating helped.

Orochimaru dared to move his hand and promptly bit his cheek.

He took a moment, eyes closed breathing slowly to collect himself and suppress his anger at her childlike insolence.

She had no idea how close he was to destroying her and inhabiting Kotaro. The boy was impressive to win over Hattori Kasumi, someone relatively low on the danger list.

Orochimaru took a moment to reflect, poor little Kasumi had taken to slavery like a duck to water. Such a good girl . . .

Orochimaru, finished with Kotaro now that Anko was behaving a bit better turned to Kasumi. He walked over to the bed that contained her and pulled the sheet back from her head. She had a triumphant smile burned onto her face, it made him want to laugh . . . she really thought she'd gotten one over _him_?

"What about Kasumi-chan?" Orochimaru asked through his smile.

"Well lord Orochimaru . . . we're not exactly miracle workers. Her chest was . . . obliterated." Kabuto shrugged.

"And her regenerative abilities?" Orochimaru asked.

"Worked just fine until her brain functions stopped, as tends to happen when a person dies. She is, for all intents and purposes, still dead." Kabuto shrugged.

"And your prognosis?" Orochimaru pressed.

Kabuto laughed, "It's tricky . . . I believe I already mentioned that I wasn't a miracle worker."

Orochimaru sighed and whispered, "Well see to it that Kotaro-kun is up and running by the end of the day . . . but let him have plenty of rest, let them all rest . . . do everything you can here, then you and I will be planning for this war."

"Lord?" Kabuto raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? Aren't we already fighting the war?"

Orochimaru shook his head, "I want to start with the Roundup Operation; bring them all in and send teams to secure the ones in hostile territory; getting Sasuke is the only higher priority."

"What a coincidence, the first one should be brought in shortly. What about the rebels in Waves? If the army from Wind can't stop them I mean."

Orochimaru laughed, "Trust me, they won't! You know Nara Shikamaru."

"Lord Orochimaru, I can assure you I am his better."

"I have no doubt," Orochimaru said, "which is why you will arrange a series of door stops for them, if we hold Lightning's army in place then Water's will be the only one to fear, the ninja will stand no chance if and when they arrive here."

"If they have the Nine Tails again . . ." Kabuto trailed off.

"It'll be all the more embarrassing for them when they're slaughtered." Orochimaru supplied. "Finish up here, then come talk to me in the crystal chamber. I will be discussing matters in Iwa with Minoru."

"Yes master, when I'm done here . . . Lord, about the matter I suggested before . . ."

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, "What matter?"

"The eyes, Lord. The Kagegan." Kabuto pressed.

Orochimaru considered, then laughed softly, remembering Kasumi's final smile.

She thought she won. She thought she beat _him._

_No, no one beats _me_. You didn't, Kabuto won't, Sasuke-kun won't, nobody will. _Orochimaru thought with a smile of his own.

"Very well, you may have your way on that matter, but I have my own reasons for agreeing to it, which we'll discuss in private in the crystal chamber. Oh and try to see about Okatsu, if she's still alive I want her to start making herself useful."

"And if she's dead?"

"Then she no longer matters." Orochimaru said simply.

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto bowed, and immediately turned to Kasumi, lost in his work the moment his superior permitted it.

Orochimaru left the infirmary and hurried to his private living space, thoughts racing through his head.

He wanted to win the war but if he could get Sasuke's body he would care a lot less about all that.

He could happily go into seclusion for a decade or two rebuilding his power, after all he was immortal and not every generation would have a Nara Shikamaru . . . for that matter he _had _the next generation's Nara Shikamaru, and he'd kill Kotaro himself before the war ended in his defeat.

Or take the boy's body if he still didn't have Sasuke.

* * *

Eri scoffed as she was shoved roughly into the dining room. She was separated from Daisuke now it made her feel very uncomfortable, afraid even.

The lavish setting was probably meant to assure her that she wasn't being interrogated or anything, but the guards hadn't been gentle and they hadn't even asked her about separating her and Daisuke, hadn't answered her when she asked where he was being taken.

Someone made some mention of her needing to be grateful for her privilege of actually being in the palace, but she didn't give half a crap about that.

She was a little surprised to see a minister of the emperor sitting across from her, or at least the woman was dressed like a minister. She had red hair and a truly impressive chest, possibly the largest Eri had ever seen and she got he distinct impression that the powers that be were mocking her.

"Like who the heck are you?" The woman raised an eyebrow, "Are you a like representative of the Emperor? Oh no, the jacket . . . you're an Ishida? What are you, the only son?"

That did it. Eri leapt out of her chair and slammed her fist on the table, "I get it!" She shouted, "I have no breasts! I'm minus my chest! The powers that be owe me a rack! Damn it we can't all be over-inflated like you, now why the heck am I here?"

The woman laughed, "I'm like, totally sorry, sweetie . . . it's just, no, no you have a really feminine face . . . really . . ."

"Shut it!" Eri snapped, falling back into her chair, it didn't help that long hair wasn't really a marker of femininity anymore . . . she hoped Nao wasn't still wearing his hair long, if her brother somehow looked more _feminine_ than her she'd kill him.

"The hell am I here for? Those ninja have to be gone by now and I didn't have anything to do with them." Eri grunted.

"What ninja?" The woman asked.

"What, am I being interrogated?" Eri demanded, "I had _nothing _to do with them! I was just relaxing in my shop, having a drink-"

"Oh you should try milk . . . it's supposed to help with . . . your um . . . shortcoming." The red haired woman smiled brightly. Eri resisted the urge to throw something at her only because there was nothing to throw.

"Shortcoming?" Eri demanded, the woman raised her hands in surrender.

"Don't get mad again!"

"I haven't stopped from the first time!" Eri snarled, "You're here _just _to tick me off, aren't you?"

"Actually I'm here because I have information for Lord Kabuto . . . I'm one of his spies you see . . . well, an important one . . . I helped them take Sunagakure."

"Stop talking." Eri commanded.

"Why? Aren't you a loyal servant of the Emperor too? I thought most of the Ishida daughters were happily staying in Imperial territory and only the boy and one girl were renegades . . . are you the one girl?"

Eri's eye twitched, "No, I'm her sister." She said crossly.

The woman was silent for a long time, then she laughed, "Was that a joke?"

"No, I really am her sister . . ." Eri scoffed. Then, after a while, sensing that her conversational partner wasn't the sharpest tack she confessed, "I . . . I guess I was being humorously sarcastic though . . ."

"Oh . . . okay." The woman smiled. "My name's Syako."

"That's a name?" Eri raised an eyebrow.

"What's yours?" Syako challenged.

"Ishida Eri."

"See? That's a mouthful, you have to go introducing yourself as Ishida, then you have to specify which one, and you have that forename so people know which clan you belong to because it's not like you're the only Eri in the world, y'know? But like, me? I just say "I'm Syako" it's the only name I need, I'm the only one."

"What if you found out you weren't?" Eri asked.

"I'd ask Lord Kabuto to kill the copycat . . . unless she were my daughter, I might let my daughter use the name too . . . but only if she couldn't think of her own, and I was done with it." Syako seemed lost in thought for a moment, then she said, "I think if I let my daughter use it, then Syako would be immortal. She could let _her _daughter use it, and _her _daughter, and _her _daughter . . . the name would go on forever."

"Well then you really would get imitators." Eri shrugged.

"What are you going to call your daughter?" Syako asked.

Eri frowned. She decided she wasn't going to answer that, she didn't want to chatter with one of Kabuto's spies. The woman seemed . . . innocent in her simplicity, and that made Eri feel like she must be a _very _good spy. She wouldn't tell the tramp anything, she couldn't afford to.

She folded her arms and looked away. Syako asked, "Did I say something wrong again?"

Eri shook her head, "If you don't know why I'm here just find someone who does so I can go home."

"I can't leave this room until I'm summoned . . . so I guess if you can't leave either then, like, we're stuck here together. We might as well talk."

Eri leaned across the table and looked at Syako.

She asked very calmly, "Did you help Orochimaru take this city?"

Syako hesitated, and looked away.

"Well I _used to be _very important to Lord Kabuto. He'll take me back, he'll know I'm worth it, I'm a brilliant spy. Konoha was . . . he wasn't himself, no. I was confused too, but it's okay now, he'll take me back into his service and my life will get better . . . just like yours. Your life must be pretty good in this city, right?"

Again Eri didn't answer.

She just looked away and again and started praying that Daisuke wasn't being hurt.

* * *

Kabuto sat down and said, "I _may _have someone we can sneak into the Lands of Wind if it falls, she just showed up today with a border patrol. I was going to have her publicly executed, but if she comes to be of use so much the better for us, and we can always kill her after her mission is complete. I'm having the Samurai debriefed now and their reports should be presented to me by sundown, they might shed light on whether or not I can trust her."

Lord Orochimaru, sitting on his throne nodded, "You mean the old Daimyo's niece? I want copies of those reports, I'm quite fascinated to know how she came back to our fold, and why she chose now."

"Of course, Lord." Kabuto said with a slight bow.

"How about the Kagegan?" Orochimaru asked.

"That's . . . moving right along. I'm optimistic. " Kabuto said. He'd said it evasively he had to admit but he didn't think Lord Orochimaru detected it.

The truth was he could have expedited Kasumi's healing to help revive her . . . but he wanted Orochimaru's permission for his experiments on those eyes.

"We weren't too late getting to the body?" Orochimaru asked.

"We'll know for sure in the morning, but even if it works it could be a week or more before everything's ready . . . the rebellion could be at our doorstep by then." Kabuto said with a frown, "This plan may not actually bear fruit until it's too late to matter, I thought that was your main reason for telling me "no" before. Because of that, I must know . . . what changed your mind?"

"Kakashi." Orochimaru said calmly.

"I'm confused . . ." Kabuto said.

"A first, or are you kidding?" Orochimaru smirked.

Kabuto shrugged, "What could Hatake have told you? You were nowhere near the room."

"Nothing in person . . . but you see . . . his safety was Kotaro-kun's price of service, Kotaro-kun's was the price of Anko's body itself . . . now that Kakashi is gone Anko is willful, she wants to speak to Kotaro and I'm sure it's just to tell him that she'd rather die than have him continue to serve me, she knew before that that would do no good because Kotaro would still serve me because of his father."

"Such burdensome things, families." Kabuto laughed softly.

"Indeed . . . and just look at how well it's worked for Kurai-kun and Shiroi-chan, a single child keeps them in our pockets." Kabuto laughed, "But . . . without Kakashi I have nothing to hold against Kotaro for the moment . . . apart from Anko. I can't afford to lose Kotaro either, he's too useful, too powerful. I can't hope to earn his loyalty without Controllers right now . . . but this incident has me convinced that the Controllers need to be done away with."

"But the Kagegan . . ." Kabuto smiled.

"We need some way of buying his loyalty, some way of keeping him in our corner so that Anko knows better than to try anything. We lost Kakashi, we need something to hold him over until I can secure . . . my new project."

"New project?" Kabuto asked.

"Another of my little wards has turned up in Waves, I plan to add her to my collection when the opportunity presents itself. It's a low priority of course. The Roundup Operation and getting Sasuke-kun still takes priority. Yukio tried to keep this information from us, and one of the Yamanaka thought the information was worth his own life."

"Was it?" Kabuto raised an eyebrow.

Lord Orochimaru just smiled, "The man shouldn't have tried to hide it in the first place."

Kabuto just joined his Lord in a laugh at the idiot Controllers, they'd really thought they could rebel from the inside?

Or had they just been desperate?

Either way all they were worth now was a laugh.

And Kotaro-san . . . oh he was in for a surprise.

* * *

Kotaro lay on his bed staring at his ceiling.

He felt . . . weak. Something inside him was . . . broken or hurt. He didn't know why . . .

He didn't remember much of the day, and it was starting to get dark.

But he wasn't happy, he wasn't sad . . . he was just bored and depressed and tired. He felt like he'd nearly been drained of his chakra . . . he felt like he'd taken a beating . . . and he remembered no such things happening . . . why would they?

He remembered being in the infirmary, remembered the Emperor had been there . . . but he'd sensed his mother too . . . was it crazy to think that his mother had forced the Emperor to see him in the infirmary personally?

He didn't even know if he'd been in the infirmary though, maybe it was a dream . . .

Somehow though . . . somehow he felt like something great had happened that morning. Something he just couldn't remember.

But . . . if he tried, if he _really _tried . . . he felt like he could just feel the edges of the memory . . . and it made him smile.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **One of the reasons this chapter is so early is because it's to help me catch up. So . . . one down? After the last chapter I expected this one might seem underwhelming, but now, given the general response thus far to Kasumi's once triumphant death, I suspect this chapter will outright tick people off. I'm sorry, really, this is just how the story's supposed to go . . .


	58. Another Request

**Chapter Fifty-Six**

Hitomi fell to the ground and stared at the ceiling of Kaoru's hut, hovel or whatever the word for "crappy tiny house" was.

Shanty? There had to be one she was forgetting.

"How're you gonna fit your family in here?" Hitomi demanded.

"I didn't think I'd _have _a family when I made the place." Kaoru admitted without bothering to look up from his newspaper.

"I wouldn't be so quick to admit to building this place." Hitomi grunted.

"How was your training today?" Kaoru asked.

"What training?" Hitomi scoffed.

"Well you came through the door covered in sweat and collapsed on the floor so either you're training or there's some plague going around and since there's nothing about _that_ in the paper . . ."

Hitomi sighed and asked, "Why would I risk this place with ninja training?"

"Who said anything about ninja training?" Kaoru asked, "Keika's not a ninja."

Hitomi propped herself up on her elbows and watched Kaoru as he sat against a wall reading the newspaper intently, a cup of tea or coffee or something nearby.

She raised an eyebrow, "Are you practicing your "dad pose" or something?" She asked.

Kaoru did look up now, "What?" He laughed.

"You look like my dad used to, just reading the paper while I talk about whatever. I just figure maybe it's something all men practice when they find out they're going to be fathers." Hitomi said, sitting up as she finally managed to catch her breath.

Kaoru blinked, "My dad used to do that too, maybe I was just imitating him without thinking about it, I bet you've got a few of your parents' mannerisms yourself."

"Doubt it." Hitomi scoffed, "My parents died when I was young."

"But you remember how your dad read the newspaper." Kaoru smiled.

"Well yeah . . . but I never do that." Hitomi shrugged, "I don't like newspapers, I don't _care _what's going on in everyone else's world, it's too depressing."

"Really?" Kaoru asked, "So you're in your own world then?"

Hitomi shrugged again, "I guess. I just know I'm . . . content. Nothing bad is happening, and I'm not going to change anything for anyone else so if a fire breaks out two towns away I don't care."

"What about the people who might be hurt in the fire?" Kaoru asked.

"I don't know them, I've never met them, for all I know they're just a story the newspaper created to boost sales, it doesn't mean anything to me." Hitomi shrugged.

Kaoru shrugged now and went back to his paper, "Maybe you should spend less time with Keika."

"What? Why?" Hitomi blinked, though Kaoru wouldn't see it from behind her goggles.

"That answer was pretty much the same sort Keika would have given." Kaoru shrugged.

"How does that make it wrong?" Hitomi asked.

"It doesn't . . . I just don't like that part of her. Keika is . . . well she's the sort that if she saw an old man struggling along the side of the road she'd stop whatever she was doing to help him make his way home, and I absolutely love that about her . . . but if he were to die along the way she'd take anything of value that he had with the attitude that he wouldn't need it anymore, then she'd leave and forget the whole thing."

"She's practical." Hitomi shrugged.

"That's what she'd call it too." Kaoru said.

"Well what would _you _do in that situation?" Hitomi asked.

"I'd leave the guy his possessions for one thing, and then if I could I'd carry him the rest of the way to his village and hand him over to his family." Kaoru said. "If I couldn't carry him I'd try to put his body someplace safe and then go tell the people of his village and lead them back to him myself."

Hitomi smiled slightly, and shook her head. She thought to herself, "That's what Nao would do too."

"Who?" Kaoru asked.

"What?" Hitomi looked up.

"Who's that?" Kaoru asked.

"Who?" Hitomi asked, looking around.

Kaoru smirked, "All right, fine, don't tell me."

Hitomi was confused now but she just fell back on the floor and commented, "There's a hole in your roof."

"You can wait till tomorrow to fix it if you're still worn out." Kaoru said, returning to his paper.

"Why me?" Hitomi asked.

"You know where it is." Kaoru said.

Hitomi sighed, and asked, "Kaoru . . . do you . . . I mean . . ." She frowned, "Did you get Keika pregnant on purpose?"

"No." Kaoru said, "But I'm not upset."

"But . . . your kid is gonna be like her too you know."

"I think the child will be a bit like both Keika and myself. With any luck he or she will be a blend of the better aspects of our personalities, if we're unlucky the kid will be the worst parts of our personalities and steal people's wallets."

Hitomi said, "But I meant . . . you know, the kid's going to be . . . different, you know? Different from everyone else in the village. What if they don't understand?"

Kaoru looked up form his paper again, "Are we talking about Keika's baby or yours?"

"I didn't know I had a baby." Hitomi said evasively.

"But you _want _one, don't you?" Kaoru said, lowering his paper to look at her again, this time he seemed like he was trying to figure something out.

"I wasn't coming on to you!" Hitomi snapped, sitting up and backing away from him.

That seemed to surprise him and he said, "I didn't think you were. But that's what this is, isn't it? You want to have kids of your own, but you're scared of them being born different from everyone else. You're asking me how I feel about Keika's child because you have no idea how you'd feel about your own someday."

Hitomi lowered her gaze and didn't say anything.

After a while, Kaoru asked, "Did you . . . y'know, have a boyfriend in your old village?"

"No!" Hitomi said quickly, "I mean . . . well . . . not really."

Kaoru raised an eyebrow, "Girlfriend?"

"No!" Hitomi laughed despite the serious tone of the conversation.

"You're not going to explain this one, are you?" Kaoru smirked.

"No sir, I am not." Hitomi said firmly.

"Okay, we'll leave it alone then. But . . . I guess really any kid is in danger of things like sickness, bullies, cruel words and actions. Mine won't be any different in _that _respect but if you're asking how I'd feel if my kid is like Keika _and _you, if he's going to have the same blood as the rest of your clan . . . well around here people are used to Keika, they'd expect it, nobody would judge him."

"Or her." Hitomi supplied.

"Or her. And nobody here would judge you either." Kaoru said. "If you decide to settle down and raise a family of your own this'd be a pretty good place for it."

Hitomi was quiet for a moment, then she said, "What's gonna happen when your kid makes his way in the world, goes to a city? In a world that hates ninja more than ever those with obvious ninja blood are going to be shunned aren't they?"

"'I suppose. I guess I'll just have to make sure they're ready for that. I think . . . when I was growing up no matter how bad things got it was always comforting to know that there was somewhere I was safe; for me it was the woods where I could hide from anyone-except Keika when I met her, she can see through-well you _know _what she can see through."

Kaoru smiled, "I'll just have to make sure that my kids know there's always going to be a place where they're safe from the world, even if it's just this crappy little shack."

"Shack!" Hitomi said, "That's the one I was forgetting!"

"What?" Kaoru blinked.

"Huh?" Hitomi asked innocently.

* * *

Hitomi shook her thoughts from her head and fell backwards, tumbling off of the high wall of the city she'd been sitting on.

She landed on her feet, though the drop had been a bit more than she'd expected and she did stumble down to one knee.

"Losing your touch, Sensei?" Yomiko asked as she approached, her arms folded.

Hitomi raised her eyebrows, "I kind of hoped nobody saw that," She admitted.

"Maybe you're just getting too _old_." Yomiko said darkly.

"You better hope not, you're only five years younger than me." Hitomi smirked.

It wasn't that she hadn't picked up on Yomiko's obviously poor mood, she just wasn't sure _why _she was so grumpy.

"Hmm. So is that how you look at it now? It's _just _five years?"

Hitomi raised an eyebrow at Yomiko, "What's up, kid?"

"Ah, so you do recognize that I'm still a kid compared to you?" Yomiko pressed.

"It's the only reason I haven't hit you yet." Hitomi suggested lightheartedly.

Yomiko shook her head, "Just tell me why you did it."

"Did what?" Hitomi asked.

"You know what!" Yomiko snapped.

"Jumped from the wall?" She raised an eyebrow, "I wanted to come down, I was in a rush."

"I mean when you kissed Naomasa!" Yomiko demanded.

This was news to Hitomi, "When did I do that?"

Yomiko scoffed, "Don't act like you don't know, I saw you."

Hitomi folded her arms, "I'm pretty sure I'd remember if . . ." She trailed off as suddenly she realized she _did _remember.

"Oh, is it coming back to you?" Yomiko sneered.

"Yomiko, I'm sorry," Hitomi said, lowering her gaze, "I don't even remember _why _it happened but it won't happen again."

"Ah but you see that's a problem. If you don't know _why _it happened how can we know it wont happen again?" Yomiko demanded.

"Trust me, it wont." Hitomi said.

"Oh no, I'm _through _trusting you. You're my rival, I won't forgive you for what you did. I'll just have to make sure you don't do it again, give you a real good reason to remember not to go back on your word." The teenage girl said, cracking her knuckles.

Hitomi's eyes narrowed though Yomiko couldn't see it, "I'm not interested in Naomasa!"

"You say that, and yet he's been following you for years! If you weren't interested in him he'd have given up, you-"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Nara Shikamaru said sharply as he came into view, "But Yomiko, I'm going to need you to go prepare for the march, we're leaving by dusk."

Yomiko was shaking with rage, Hitomi folded her arms and said, "We can always have this discussion another day, Sarutobi."

"Only if you see me before I see you." Yomiko scoffed and walked away.

Hitomi scoffed too, she didn't want to kill Yomiko but she knew she could.

Still, the girl was just upset. Given the time to calm down she would realize how rash the action she'd nearly taken would have been.

Shikamaru came to Hitomi and said, "As for you, Hijiri, I wanted a word."

"What about?" Hitomi asked, not totally off her guard.

Shikamaru-senpai would have seen her kiss Naomasa too, and she didn't want to deal with having to explain something she didn't understand herself to anyone, certainly not to one of her sensei's most trusted friends.

"It's about your friend, Hara Masamune." Shikamaru said, "You understand that Naruto has asked you to travel with him and Sasuke, correct."

"Yes, sir." Hitomi said.

"And you understand the underlying expectation of you?" Shikamaru asked, and Hitomi nodded.

Shikamaru said, "Well . . . I have a little something to add to your burden, Hijiri. You're not going to like it, but trust me, it's necessary."

"Okay . . ." Hitomi said.

"Not _if_, but _when _Hara makes his attack on Sasuke . . . you will help him."

"I know, it's joing going to be hard if I have to hurt Hara."

"I meant help Hara." Shikamaru said.

"Excuse me?" Hitomi blinked. Was Shikamaru telling her to betray Sasuke?

"It is vital that Hara not be killed in his fight with Sasuke, so you will help him. Help him to defeat Sasuke and then help him escape."

Hitomi shook her head, "I know you and Sasuke-sama have your differences-"

"This isn't from some personal grudge, Hijiri." Shikamaru said, "This needs to be done. You can't let Hara die, and if I'm right he won't retreat until Sasuke is defeated. So help him defeat Sasuke and then get him out of there."

Hitomi folded her arms, "I assume further explanation is incoming."

"You assume wrong," Shikamaru said, "I can't explain further, Orochimaru's people could be in this city, they could be listening to us right now. It'll unsettle Orochimaru enough to know that I want him to capture Uchiha Sasuke, but he won't know why."

"I want to know why." Hitomi said.

Shikamaru handed her a sealed scroll. "Read it and burn it." He said, "Wait until you're far from the city."

Hitomi accepted the scroll, relieved that there was going to be at least some form of explanation for this mad order. However she added, "You understand that if I don't find your explanation sufficient I will not follow your orders and will instead try to subdue Hara to prevent both his death and Sasuke-sama's capture."

"I wouldn't have prepared the scroll if I thought you'd do it as a favor." Shikamaru said, "Now if you don't mind, Mist and Water are heading out. You'd better go . . . and don't worry, Nao won't ambush you. I have him watching Kyoko."

Hitomi nodded, "Thanks. I guess I better be going then . . . I hope you know what you're doing, Nara-senpai."

"So do I, Hijiri." Shikamaru said grimly, "I really do."

* * *

Kakashi fell back against a tree, he hadn't had proper exercise in four years, and after a fight the run hadn't been easy.

But he'd made it . . . he was out of the city, he was long gone.

Inoichi sat on a rock nearby, "Orochimaru will send hunters after us."

"We'll have to outmaneuver them." Kakashi shrugged, "We need to get to Waves fast."

Inoichi nodded, and he whispered, "We can take a quick rest, but we shouldn't linger too long."

"I don't plan to." Kakashi said.

They sat in silence for a moment while Kakashi thought about his son, trapped in that city.

Was there anything he could do to save him?

"Inoichi, what's the situation like?"

"Worse than Orochimaru likes to admit. Waves was hit much sooner than he anticipated."

"Four years and it was hit too soon?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Wind's army is barely back up to full strength," Inoichi explained, "and Waves' army is laughable. He lost his navy prior to the fighting, I think he meant to attack Kirigakure and find the illusive exile island that he'd been hearing rumors about, so he split the fleet. Water's navy annihilated first a third of Orochimaru's naval forces from Waves, then a second. The final third retreated and tried to keep the city safe and I think he expected at least a day's worth of fight for the ports and maybe another for the city itself, but the coalition forces snuck in in the dead of night and sacked the city.

"To compound matters I've been hearing rumors that Lightning blazed through the armies of Earth and is already headed for the capital. Orochimaru's got his own army of acolytes and loyalists marching out to stop them, whatever happened to or in Earth is highly classified but I know Kabuto's been bent out of shape about it."

"So everything's gone wrong for him, I assume he meant for the loyalists to fight off the Mist and Konoha coalition while Earth spent themselves holding off Lightning?" Kakashi asked.

"That seems to be the case, but I wasn't actually told anything. Everything I know comes from observing the Five, seeing through their eyes or looking through their muddled memories."

Kakashi frowned and said, "So the war's not going well for Orochimaru. At least that's comforting."

"It would be, but . . . I don't know, I get the sense that he doesn't really mind. Like . . . like he doesn't care about the outcome of the war as long as he gets what he wants. I don't even think he cares if the whole empire crumbles around him before or after he gets it so long as he gets it."

"Why conquer everything then?" Kakashi wondered, "Why not just revive himself and work in secrecy?"

"I don't know . . . but if we think on it I bet we can come up with something." Inoichi said.

The two were quiet for a moment, then Kakashi laughed softly, and he was surprised to hear the sound of his own laugh; even a weak laugh hadn't really escaped him in years. "I think I might have it. The world conquest was never Orochimaru's plan, it was Kabuto's."

"Weren't they one and the same before he got revived in Anko's body?"

"That's what everyone thinks . . . but maybe not . . . or at least maybe Kabuto had more independence than we assume, enough independence to be ambitious for himself and not just for Orochimaru."

"So that means . . ." Inoichi whispered, then let out an impressed whistle, "That means the enemy's leadership isn't as united as we thought."

"That might be why Kabuto is more worried about losing Earth than Orochimaru is, to Orochimaru he still has what's important, his research. For Kabuto he's lost his strongest supporting nation to . . . whatever he lost them to."

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves or anything," Inoichi said, "But still I think this sounds good, it makes a sort of sense."

"There are a couple ways it still doesn't," Kakashi admitted, "but we need to get back to Hokage-sama and the others first, we can discuss it with them. Maybe they have information we don't."

"Yeah . . . ready to go?" Inoichi asked.

"Yes, lets get back to our friends as quickly as we can." Kakashi said.

Inoichi was quiet for a while, then he said, "I notice you didn't ask me why I served Orochimaru."

"I hadn't planned on it. Not yet anyway. Use the breath you would've spent answering to run instead, we're not safe just yet." Kakashi said and the two Jounin were moving again.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **This chapter is late; you know that. It's late because it and the chapter directly after it and also portions of the chapter after that one were all fused together like some sort of freaky super chapter, I kept working on all the segments adding things here, removing bits there and trying to reassemble them to a reasonable length. The upshot is that you guys get two chapters at the same time, and the next is about half finished too.

Enjoy!


	59. Dire Designs

**Chapter Fifty-Seven**

Naruto looked over the assembled army.

Some last minute changes had been made to the strategy; because there was a greater chance of engaging the Wind nation's army, the Land of Fire soldiers would be traveling with Taisho Hirate and his Wind soldiers.

That freed the ninja up to move faster, something that the Mizukage had originally objected to, stating that the ninja of Konoha would be too mobile and would probably reach Konoha too soon and find themselves cut off from support.

He'd suggested the Konoha ninja simply fold themselves in with the Mist ninja and Water army, but Naruto had declined. "This is our home," Naruto had said, "we know our way around. We'll get there and have plenty of time to scout the defenses and maybe even infiltrate the place so that when Lightning's army and your own main force arrive we'll be all set."

Shikamaru had told Naruto beforehand that Suigetsu would pretend to be uncertain but agree, and sure enough the Mizukage had done exactly that, he'd seemed uncertain and then finally agreed.

Shikamaru had said that Suigetsu would consider it a race to Konoha, would be determined to get there as quickly as possible but he hadn't told Naruto why it was so important that Suigetsu think of it as a race.

They should all be working together, for that matter Naruto wasn't entirely certain why they were splitting up. The should have hit Konoha head on with everything, thrown down Orochimaru and Kabuto and then usurped their authority to demilitarize Earth and Wind and let things calm down again.

Shikamaru had said that he needed to trust him, and Naruto supposed he did.

The armies were getting ready to go, and sure enough Water's soldiers were already starting to march out of the city, the substantial number of Mist shinobi mingled in with their ranks.

Sasuke would be with them, as would Hara and Hitomi. Naruto felt a great deal of anxiety because he considered each of those people a member of his family, if anything happened . . .

The Konoha ninja were nearly prepared, there was just the matter of Shikamaru's daughter to attend to, then they would be leaving.

And the third army, the mixture of Wind and Fire's remaining soldiers, and the remaining Sunagakure ninja would be moving out as soon as it got dark.

Naruto forced himself to look confident for the troops, and really inside he _was _confident that they'd win . . . but that didn't stop him from being a bundle of nerves.

Naruto had spent three years preparing to throw down Orochimaru and Kabuto, preparing to retake his city.

Simply using the perfect cloning to transform into the Demon Fox wouldn't do the trick, in fact Kabuto would probably expect it, which was why Naruto had had to research and learn other methods of advancing himself.

And a new way to hopefully hurt Orochimaru.

He just hoped it worked.

But they'd find out soon enough.

"Naruto . . " A voice from behind him said, and Naruto, a seasoned ninja was not caught by surprise in the least.

"Holy cow, don't go sneaking up on me, Sasuke!" He shouted, leaping back five feet . . . because of how not surprised he was, that is.

Uchiha Sasuke smiled at him, "We've been through a lot, Naruto. Everything we've done in our lives, our disagreements, our rivalries, our fights, our friendship, it's all made us into the men we are today."

"Yeah . . . living legends." Naruto said.

"More than that." Sasuke said, folding his arms. "The truth is that you and I are heroes, Naruto . . . I admit, you more so than me. As heroes the two of us have a responsibility to bring peace back to this world at any cost . . . I don't know for sure what the future holds, but when the time comes I wanted you to know that I respect you as my one true equal."

Naruto was moved. He couldn't think of anything to say to that and Sasuke didn't seem to expect a response either. He just held out his hand and Naruto took it, they shook hands and Naruto had a strange, almost ghostly image come to his head.

What if this were the last time they shook hands as friends?

If Sasuke didn't come back to Konoha . . . if he served Mist forever . . . they might become enemies someday.

Naruto frowned and said, "When this is over, you're coming back to Konoha, right?"

Sasuke smiled, "When this is over I'm going to restore my clan's name and honor to its rightful status."

Naruto's frown persisted, all Sasuke had to do was say 'yes' or 'no' but he'd avoided saying either which only deepened Naruto's concern.

Would Sasuke be his enemy some day? Would they face each other on the field again?

Sasuke took his leave and Naruto watched his best friend go.

"You're troubled, Hokage-sama?" A voice asked, and Naruto spun around to see Ishida's sister, the guessing machine or prophetess or whatever.

Hirate Emiko smiled warmly and said, "Don't worry, Hokage-sama . . . my guess is that in his heart, your friend will never forget you or how much your friendship meant to him."

"But will he ever be a Konoha ninja again?" Naruto asked.

Emiko looked saddened for a moment and whispered, "You and he both know that it was never Konoha he was loyal to, it was always the people he cares about. Konoha is a city, a pile of wood and stone; it is the people that matter. Uchiha will not betray those people . . . will he wear their uniform again? I do not want to guess . . . but will you and he ever have to fight? The answer is no."

Naruto watched the young samurai woman as she too gazed at the departing Mist ninja and Water soldiers. "I felt like I needed to answer a question for you, but Shikamaru said you wouldn't want me to. I hope I haven't overstepped my bounds."

Naruto smiled weakly, "Oh Shikamaru probably meant a different question, there's one I'm kind of afraid of knowing the answer to.

he asked, "How do you rate our chances of winning this war?"

"A lot can happen, the answer is fuzzy. You see . . . I have this feeling that I'll see you all again in Konoha . . . but I can't guess the outcome of every battle yet to be fought."

"Isn't that what you've done all this time for Shikamaru?" Naruto asked.

"No. My assistance to Nara Shikamaru has always been to inform him of which of his plans are likely to work, where the enemy almost certainly has hidden troops or shrines, but I don't see the future . . . I see what's before me and I guess the logical conclusion. For example my brother's adorable, but quite silly romance with your student . . . I know how that's likely to end, unless something changes which I strongly doubt."

"Well, as Hitomi's old Sensei I'd actually kind of like to know, I mean-"

Emiko smiled and raised a finger, signaling Naruto to stop speaking, "No, no . . . that one's too easy. You're very capable of guessing yourself, you know her and you helped to train him, he told me so himself. But my point is in that case I know the facts, and I know the probabilities . . . and the answer just pops into my head. I just know . . . and I'm right. You show me a map and tell me the enemy wants to stop you from getting somewhere and pop, I just know where they'll try to hit you, I know where they've probably ruined the roads to slow you down . . . I just _know_. But when you ask me 'what day will I die, and how will it happen' I have no idea."

Emiko shrugged, "Frankly I'm happy that way . . . I wouldn't want to look at my son every day and think, 'he'll die at age fourteen when he lies about his age and enlists in the army to fight a war that's already destroyed much of the country' and be correct, you know?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "You have a son? I didn't know that!"

Emiko seemed surprised, "Did I say . . . oh well . . .neither does anyone else." She smiled sheepishly, "Akira-kun would never have let me come along if he knew. "

"You mean you're . . ." Naruto blinked and Emiko nodded, "and it's a boy?"

"That's my guess. I know I won't be hurt in the campaign so . . . do me a favor and don't tell him?" Emiko smiled. "But you see we all have our own reasons for being here, for fighting this war. Your friend, Uchiha, is fighting for his own reasons just as you are fighting for yours. Take comfort in knowing that whatever the reasons for fighting this war, or the next, whatever the circumstances, I do not believe you and he will ever fight another battle in hatred or anger."

"But you think we'll fight?" Naruto frowned.

"All friends do sometimes." Emiko shrugged.

That made Naruto feel a bit better, and his smile returned.

* * *

Eri frowned as the doors opened and two new people entered the dining room, neither of them was Daisuke.

One of them had white hair and glasses, the other was a Hyuga.

The man with glasses sat down, the woman accompanying him stood at parade rest to his right.

"Lord Kabuto!" Syako cried happily, "You came to see-"

Kabuto raised a hand, calling for silence, "Please . . . please . . . Lady Sachiko, I am quite surprised to see you here . . . our partnership ended some four years ago, did it not?"

Syako hesitated, she looked unsure and she whispered, "Um, well, I-"

"Not that it isn't lovely to see you again. You have a way of brightening up a room, even one as lavish as this." Kabuto said with a smile.

Syako, or Sachiko or whatever her name was smiled too, looking more reassured, "Thank you, Lord Kabuto, I-"

"However," Kabuto interrupted her, "you do not have permission to refer to me by name, I am the Shogun now . . . you are forgiven this time."

Syako was right back to looking worried, "I . . . yes, Shogun."

Kabuto smiled at Eri, "And you, Ishida Eri, last single daughter of the Ishida clan . . . it's an honor to meet you."

"The honor is mine, Lord Shogun." Eri said stiffly, "Dare I ask-"

"No you dare not." Kabuto said jovially, "I'll be asking the questions. For example . . . how long have you been able to climb any surface?"

"A while?" Eri frowned.

"I'd need an actual starting date, if you're not sure just tell me the earliest you remember."

"I think I've done it my whole life." Eri shrugged.  
"Interesting. Your other sisters, they all have a special ability, do they not?"

"I . . . guess."

"Your brother does not?" Kabuto asked.

"I don't know, if he does he never showed it . . . why?"

Kabuto wrote some things on a piece of paper, "Just determining whether or not he's worth experimenting on."

"Experimenting?" Eri demanded.

"Hmm? Oh yes. We suspect the Ishida clan of being an ancient rogue bloodline, it's all very silly but to be totally sure we'll need to run some tests. Don't worry, you'll be left completely intact, no harm will come to you unless you resist."

Eri felt sick, "You can't just run tests on me!"

"Really? What gave you that idea?" Kabuto raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a human being!"

"Are we changing subjects, or was that supposed to be your answer?" Kabuto asked.

Eri shook her head slowly, "We're _not _a ninja bloodline, we don't have ninja ancestors!"

"As I said, it's all rather silly . . . but I have to be sure. You see . . . if you do possess a bloodline, as seems to be the case, it seems to have multiple benefits. They're just not manifesting in each individual. If we could somehow find out why and fix it the resulting strain would be extremely useful to us. The Emperor himself expressed interest, the acquisition of your entire clan is one of our top priorities now . . . sans your brother, that is, if he has no ability we'll simply have to kill him with the rest of the Shinobi."

* * *

Kotaro's eyes opened slowly, he wasn't sure what time of day it was but he felt pretty cheerful.

Something great had happened . . . if only he could remember what.

He sat up and his hand hit something. Kasumi stirred and grumbled something in her sleep.

Kotaro stared at her . . . was she the reason he was so cheerful? Was _that _what'd happened that made him feel so fantastic?

His mind screamed that the answer to both was 'yes' but Kotaro felt like he was of two minds on the matter. One insisted that Kasumi was indeed the reason he was feeling so thrilled, the other mind wanted to know what the heck she was doing in his bed, how she'd gotten there and why he didn't remember anything whatsoever to do with it.

One of his two minds suggested he might have been drunk, but that didn't sound like him, he didn't drink.

She seemed to be clothed too, clearly he hadn't gotten to actually do anything with her so what was so great about her being in his bed taking up space?

Then he felt the strong sense that he was supposed to be happy that she was there, the problem was that he was far too confused for that.

_Isn't she beautiful, though? _He . . . thought?

Well sure, she was all right . . . but _what _was she _doing _in his room?

He decided to ask her, without thinking about it he reached out and gently shook her.

His mind reprimanded him, she was probably worn out from yesterday's sparring and training . . .

But Kasumi hadn't been at the sparring match had she?

No, she'd been somewhere else . . . where? He felt happy again, as if the answer were somehow linked to his earlier good mood.

It was as if the answer was right on the tip of his brain and he couldn't cal it up . . .

Anyway it was too late to feel bad about waking her, Kasumi had already been stirred when he accidentally touched her earlier, now actually shaking her had done the trick and the girl sat up in bed and looked around for a moment.

"Kotaro-kun? What is it?" She yawned.

"What're you doing here?" Kotaro asked her.

"Don't be mean." Kasumi yawned again, shoving him lightly. "You . . . said you'd let me sleep in today?" She almost seemed to be asking a question, rather than reminding him of something he didn't remember saying.

_No wait, I do remember, _he thought, _she's been sick so I promised her . . ._

Is that why she wasn't sparring with the rest of them yesterday?

_Yeah, I remember now, she was in the infirmary . . . _Yeah, she'd been there when he went there after getting beat up.

But that was strange, he didn't feel like the sparring had happened yesterday, he felt like it'd happened earlier that morning . . . he felt like it was afternoon now and he'd only slept a few hours since the sparring.

_I must have gotten more beat up than I thought,_ He thought, _my whole sense of time is off . . ._

She seemed almost dazed, Kotaro supposed it could be that he'd just woken her up. He spontaneously felt bad about that and said, "I'm sorry . . . you've been sick, right?"

"Hmm? Yeah . . ." Kasumi said. "I . . . my heart's weak lately . . . I think the doctor said it was from too much strain?"

"Hmm." Kotaro frowned, if her heart was weak that might explain why they hadn't . . . well . . .

_Hmm? Yeah, sure, that makes sense._ He sort-of-thought.

Kasumi seemed to be watching him with a great deal of confusion, but there was also a bit of affection too . . . or was he imagining that?

No . . . he wasn't.

Or was he?

**No he wasn't.**

Really?

Kasumi rubbed her chest and asked, "Did you want anything? Can I go back to sleep now?"

"What are you doing here?" Kotaro asked.

"Trying to sleep." Kasumi said without hesitation.

"But why are you sleeping in my quarters?"

Kasumi gave him a 'good question' look then grumbled, "Where else would I sleep?"

"In _your _quarters?" Kotaro offered.

"Are you kicking me out?" Kasumi seemed concerned, scared even. More-so than Kotaro felt the level of danger warranted.

Still he felt like he better not make her too upset . . . he wasn't sure which part of him thought that but the other sort of seemed to agree.

He said, "N-no I'm not . . . I'm just curious."

Kasumi fell back in bed and mumbled something again, Kotaro didn't hear it.

But he got the strong impression that she hadn't said anything important and he should forget it.

Which strangely made him want to struggle to remember it . . .

He coughed, but as he fought to remember it seemed like she'd said "donut" or something like that . . .

"Donut?" Kotaro wondered, then he frowned, "Don't know?"

Kotaro felt very strongly that they were sharing quarters now . . . but the reason seemed so ludicrous and wrong that he rejected it right off the bat.

There was no way he was married to Kasumi. Couldn't be right.

_Of course it's right, that's why I'm so happy. _Kotaro reasoned.

But . . . nope, try again, no way.

_It wasn't much of a ceremony, but dad was there, _he thought to himself.

Well . . . it was weird, he _did _remember his dad . . . dressed as a Sound noble . . . yeah he must have been wearing that getup because it was a special occasion?

_Like a wedding? _He asked himself slyly.

He shook his head, "Kasumi . . ." He whispered.

"Mm?"

He hesitated, then whispered, "I . . . I feel like . . . I mean . . . we're not really married, are we?"

Kasumi rolled over in bed and looked at him, she seemed to concentrate but she still looked really out of it.

"No?" She mumbled, "I mean yes . . . I dunno . . ." She hesitated , "We are . . . but it's not consummated? Because I got sick . . . I think?" She sat up, "That sucks, I'm sorry."

She said it like she was consoling someone else that it might have happened to, and Kotaro felt like it _must_ _have_ happened to someone else because he couldn't remember it at all, he had nothing in his mind that even resembled . . .

Well he remembered she'd snuck into his room . . . how often did she do that? He didn't know . . .

And they'd run off together . . . somewhere . . . somewhere that his father had been . . . his father, dressed as Sound nobility . . .

_The wedding, _he reasoned, _We got married in the morning, then I sparred in the afternoon . . . yesterday, not today . . . _He thought to himself.

It didn't seem right . . .why would he spar at all if his new wife were in the infirmary? What kind of jerk was he?

_The kind that wakes her up after promising her she can sleep in. _He thought sharply to himself.

_"_Sorry I woke you up?" He said to her.

"Sorry I'm too sick to do . . . anything?" Kasumi offered.

The air seemed bad, but Kotaro felt strongly that it was nothing to concern himself with, he should just breath deep and relax. Kasumi coughed, then she rubbed her chest and said, "I feel like someone ripped a hole through me."

It sounded completely honest, so much so that it made most of what she'd said before seem almost like she'd been reading a script or something . . . Kotaro felt suspicious for a moment, but he coughed again and everything started to get fuzzier.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **The end of the chapter was intentionally creepy, but to anyone feeling overly concerned allow me to remind you that Inoichi already established that the controllers can't force Kotaro and Kasumi to have sex, they tried before and failed. Anyone fearing for the chastity of these two can relax about that at least.


	60. Sumiko's Designs

**Chapter Fifty-Eight**

Juukei Toshiie stormed towards the assembled group of ninja, he grabbed Gammo Katashi by the collar of his flak jacket, "Where _is _he?" He demanded.

"Who?" Katashi gulped.

"My nephew!" Juukei roared, "Why did Iwao order a retreat?"

There was a strange look in Katashi's eyes when he said, "Tsuchikage-sama, Iwao is dead. He fell when we were ambushed by the Lightning cowards, he was slain during a rearguard action."

Juukei felt the news hit him like a stone fist to the gut.

But he kept his composure, he was the Tsuchikage after all. "Well turn these motherless cowards around, we're hitting those bastards now."

"Tsuchikage-sama, this is not the time for revenge," Katashi said but Toshiie threw him to the ground.

"I'm not the sentimental sort, Gammo. The Emperor appeared to me himself, claiming my men had turned back. He suspects betrayal, his own zealots have come to crush the Lightning army and if we want to remain in his graces we will not let them do it alone."

Katashi nodded, "Yes sir . . . the soldiers though, they're weary."

"They may die tired but at least they'll die for righteousness." Toshiie said, raising his massive sword in the air he shouted, "To battle, shinobi! Crush these Cloud ninja and their Lightning fodder, kill them all!"

The ninja roared their approval, Katashi looked unsure and Toshiie eyed him with suspicion.

How had he said Iwao had died? In a rearguard action?

Did anyone else see that?

What if someone _had _betrayed the holy God-Emperor?

"Katashi," Toshiie said over the din, the other ninja turned to regard him, "do exceptionally well today, I expect the head of an enemy officer or yours. I will present the Emperor with a token of our remorse, be it the head of the ranking shinobi officer, or the head of an enemy Taisho, someone has to take the fall for whatever did happen here today."

Katashi smiled a snide smile, "I'll do whatever I have to do for the Land of Earth and the village hidden in Stone, Tsuchikage-sama."

* * *

Mori Hidenobu got home late in the afternoon, which might not have been unusual except that he hadn't come home at all the previous night.

His wife, Aneko rushed to greet her husband, taking his coat and hanging it up for him just as her mother had insisted on teaching her.

"Are you alright?" She asked, "What's going on? Why haven't you been home?"

"I'm sorry," He grumbled, "Everyone's on edge. The Daimyo's been in a rage, everyone's being observed, everyone's being questioned."

"Why?" Aneko asked.

"I _really _don't know. That's the problem!" The musician said in despair, "I just don't know anything, and I guess that's what they want because they _finally _let me come home. That damn ghoul I told you about, the one who serves the Emperor and has that strange tattoo? He's the one asking all the questions, and he makes so many threats . . . I wanted to confess to whatever it was they were accusing me of in the interrogation; it wouldn't have been true but I wanted to just give in." He shook his head, "Just before I cracked they were through with me, they let me go. I nearly confessed to some kind of crime without even knowing what it was."

The man paced back and forth, his eyes wild, "I mean, maybe it's time to take a trip . . . your parents are staying in the Water capital, right? Let's take Hidemaru and have a holiday, go for a visit."

Aneko frowned, her husband was a brilliant musician, but otherwise not terribly sharp. He wasn't unintelligent, he simply didn't see things as clearly when music wasn't involved. It left Aneko to often remind him of even the move obvious things, "If there is an investigation you'll never be able to travel out of the capital or out of the Lands of Earth."

Her husband fell into a chair and buried his head in his hands, "Aneko-chan, that guy, that . . . what's his name . . . Minoru! That Minoru, he's bad, _really _bad. I feel like he'd have me framed if I so much as look at him wrong."

"So don't look at him at all."

"But he's always watching, I think something horrible must have happened, everyone's whispering that he's a ninja, if the Emperor actually sent a ninja to investigate then . . . what would that mean?"

"Have you slept at all?"

"Catnaps . . . Aneko-chan, if something happens to me, what's going to happen to you and our son? No, no, worse, what if whatever happens to me _is _what happens to you and our son?" The musician seemed on the verge of despair, his voice was rising as if he had no control over it.

Aneko just massaged his shoulders, she didn't know what else to do. "You're still the Daimyo's favorite musician, if you haven't done anything wrong I'm sure that there's nothing to worry about, our Lord won't let you suffer any further indignities."

Unfortunately, Mori Aneko was not quite as gifted as her younger sister.

There was a hard knock on the door, Hidenobu buried his head in his hands and groaned, forcing himself out of the chair to answer the door.

But someone kicked it in, soldiers poured into their home and in the midst of them was a black robed figure.

He had rather striking features, if he weren't leading soldiers into her home Aneko might even have thought he was attractive.

But he _had _just led soldiers into her home.

"No, no, no!" Hidenobu shouted, "I answered all your questions!"

"Yes . . . well . . . we have more." The man in black said, "And we'll be taking your wife as well."

"What? No! Why her, she hasn't done anything!" Hidenobu shouted.

"Her younger sister, Hirate Emiko is an advisor to the rebel army, her only brother, Ishida Naomasa is a confidante of notorious mass murderer Nara Shikamaru and an accomplice of the renegade ninja Uzumaki Naruto. Her father and mother, your in-laws, I might add, took refuge in the Land of Water at the end of the last war, and now Water has rebelled, making her eldest sister, Ito Ichiteru, wife of renegade Taisho Ito Yoshi similarly a traitor. The Ishida clan seems to be full of them."

The man in black laughed, "Doesn't it all make sense? Your father-in-law, Ishida Nagahide used his daughters as pawns in the various countries. Perhaps he was content to rule his merchant empire before, but once the Emperor came into power and limited the amount of personal wealth a commoner could achieve your father-in-law and his greedy daughters conspired to help the ninja scum overthrow our beloved Emperor."

"That's insane!" Aneko protested, "My father isn't a rebel, and-"

The man in black lashed out, slapping her across the face so hard that her jaw clicked.

"You will not speak unless you are confessing, traitor!" He roared.

"Damn you, Minoru, I won't let-" Hidenobu began but he was cut off when Minoru's other hand shot out from his robes and wrapped itself around his neck.

The arm was covered in black tattoos, and Aneko could see that half of Minoru's body had also spontaneously been covered in similar black markings, like lines in a puzzle maze.

The man sneered, "I've killed better men than you without giving it a second thought, I'd have more grief for a bug I stepped on than I would for you . . . so think carefully before I snap your worthless neck. Besides, you don't have to worry . . . you're coming along for questioning."

"Sir, there's a child in one of the rooms." A Samurai said.

Aneko screamed, "You leave him-"

And she was slapped again. This time she tried to fight back, but Minoru's strength was ridiculous.

He towered over her though she stood at her full height, and without releasing his grip on her husband's neck-though he was struggling too-Minoru's hand snaked out and grabbed both of Aneko's wrists. He twisted backwards, forcing her to scream in pain.

"Confess and the child doesn't have to die." Minoru told her with a sneer.

Her eyes were wide, _die_? Her son could _die_?

But she hadn't _done _anything, her husband hadn't done anything.

This wasn't fair.

"Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything!" Aneko sobbed.

Minoru's eyes were alive with delight. Releasing her wrists he grabbed the collar of her kimono and pulled her close, whispering into her ear, "I know . . . that makes it _so _delicious. Your life is in my hands, and _you _are the only one I was ordered to bring in . . . your husband, the child, neither one matters . . . so come quietly and I can leave them here . . . struggle and . . . well, they say no parent should ever outlive their child but you'll see firsthand if it's really all that bad."

Aneko squirmed, "I'll go with you, just don't hurt them!"

Minoru smirked and dragged her out of her home into the streets.

Their neighbors watched in confusion as Aneko was dragged by the collar, her husband shouting all sorts of threats against the guards, threats that the Ishida daughter knew wouldn't be fulfilled.

She might not have her sister Emiko's ability to guess the outcome of things, but she was pretty certain that her husband's connection to the Daimyo wasn't going to aid them in this.

* * *

Shikamaru hugged his daughter one more time before she would be sent home.

Well, to the island. Home was Konoha, but that wasn't safe for her yet.

Temari kissed her on the cheek, which wasn't really something she did too often, "Be safe, Sumiko-chan."

Sumiko frowned, "You said I could come." She said for the fifth or sixth time straight.

"It's too dangerous," Shikamaru said.

The five year old just pouted.

Jin, the deer that Shikamaru had summoned stomped the ground to indicate that it was time to go. Shikamaru smiled weakly and patted his daughter on the back, "You know Sumiko, we'll see you again in the Lands of Fire."

"In the maze." Sumiko said as Temari helped her onto the deer's back.

"Wait, what?" Shikamaru wondered, but the deer and his daughter disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Temari frowned, "What's the matter?" She asked.

"It's . . . nothing." Shikamaru said.

But he wondered what Sumiko had meant.

Could she possibly have meant the labyrinth beneath Konoha?

How would she have heard about it?

Why would she think they'd ever go there?

Temari kissed him too, and said, "I'm going to beat you to Konoha, just remember that. Gaara and I will blaze through Wind and straight into Fire, we'll have the city in our possession before you can even see it on the horizon."

Shikamaru kissed her, which wasn't something he did too often either but it wasn't like he _never _kissed his wife.

He smiled a brave smile, "I'll see you there, Temari-chan. I love you."

She shoved him away, "Don't get all dewy eyed on me, you'll make me think we're not going to see each other again!" She smiled and her smile too looked strained. "We're going to make it through this."

"We're getting old, Temari. For ninja anyway . . ."

"Then we'll call this our last war . . . so let's make sure we win it, I want to go out on a high note."

Shikamaru kissed her again, "Well if we're going to be making sure of that I'd better get to Konoha first, wouldn't want you screwing anything up."

Temari laughed and shoved him again, "We'll just see about that. I'll see you in Konoha, Shikamaru-kun, don't go getting in my way."

She began to walk away, no doubt to fall in with her brother and their forces, but she hesitated and said, "I love you too, Shikamaru. Take care of yourself, you won't have me to watch your back."

He smiled and she left.

He was alone.

But the world was still weighing on his shoulders.

He still had a war to fight . . . to win. He had a daughter and a son to take home to Konohagakure, a wife to grow old with, they all needed to survive to see the future and he needed to make sure it was a future worth seeing for their sake . . . and for the sake of everyone else, even Orochimaru's followers.

They too deserved to live in a world where human beings weren't just experiments, where people weren't bound to serve an oppressive emperor or pray to his five shinobi minions.

He shook his head, "It's troublesome . . . but it's for everyone's sake. So I can't give up yet."

His stomach hurt a bit, but not as badly as before. At first he worried that those pains were coming back but he laughed to himself when he realized it was just because he hadn't eaten in a while.

He'd find Chouji and Ino, and they'd have a bite to eat before they moved out.

Then it was time to win the war.

* * *

Sumiko frowned when she appeared in the magical glade of the deer.

She didn't like it. It smelled like trees.

A large, white deer trotted towards her, or galloped . . . that was horses, not deer right?

Sumiko wasn't sure so she didn't say anything, but she might like to draw the deer later.

The deer watched her for a moment. He was probably going to say something, which sort of wouldn't surprise her.

She understood that normal deer didn't talk, but summoned deer did . . . she didn't know why, but she understood that that was the case.

She'd grown up with her mother's summoned weasels and her father's summoned deer, and she sensed that she was only supposed to pick one to summon herself, but she also sensed that her parents would consider it a competition between each other to see who's animal she picked, so she'd always thought she wouldn't want to summon anything because she didn't want her father's feelings to be hurt.

Because she would have picked the weasels, they were fun and then she'd be more like her mother. She loved her mother, and she thought her mother was . . . well, the best at everything.

Daddy was second best.

But she'd had to sign a contract of some sort with the deer so she supposed if she knew how to summon she'd be able to summon them now.

And that might not be so bad, she sensed that the deer were stronger than the weasels and looking at the big white deer now she felt like that'd been an astute guess on her part.

Astute . . . that was the word ri-ah who cared? It was her head, she could make up her own word if she wanted.

The great deer was enormous though, much bigger than a typical deer, more the size of a big war horse.

He said, "You're the first born?"

Sumiko nodded.

"Ah, we were wondering when Shikamaru would give his first born to us, that's always been the deal . . . you didn't think your father was the _first _and _only _son of _his _parents did you?"

Sumiko raised an eyebrow, what the heck was that supposed to mean?

"We always eat the first born of those who sign our contract." The deer said, then threw in a ghoulish laugh.

Sumiko hesitated, "Um . . ."

"She's probably too young to know that you're joking." The deer that had brought her said.

"She's probably too young to _get _the joke even if she does know he's joking." A deer with a red collar and cape said.

"She's probably too young to know what a joke is!" Another deer with a green collar and cape said.

The great white deer shook its massive head and said, "Quiet! This girl is under our protection until her grandmother summons one of us to take her back."

"What about the meantime?" The deer that brought her asked.

"What do you mean?" The huge white deer asked.

"What do we do with her until her grandma summons one of us?"

"Huh . . ." The great white deer sighed, "Little girl, what do you think we should do?"

"Dunno" Sumiko shrugged.

The deer hesitated, "Maybe we should tell her a story?"

The smaller deer mumbled among each other, Sumiko said "I know!"

She smiled broadly, she could still help her daddy, she just needed to tell these deer what to do if he summoned them.

And, since they didn't seem to be brilliant, she'd make sure they didn't need to worry much about remembering her instructions, the three younger smaller deer were the ones her father usually summoned, and they all wore capes or vests or something.

She just had to leave a little something for her father on those coats.

"So what is it little one?" The white deer asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Draw!" Sumiko said excitedly.

* * *

The entire hillside exploded, Kimiko leapt through the air and latched onto a tree.

Chiwa was right beside her, but Yuu and Tomoko stayed put.

Yuu grabbed Tomoko and they phased through the rockslide, dozens of Sound shinobi and soldiers poured over the hill.

Lord Taiko raised his katana in the air and roared at the top of his lungs, "Fire!"

The bowmen who'd been waiting for the enemy to charge over the hill let loose their arrows, the sky went dark as the flurry blocked out the sun.

And then the Sound forces responded in kind.

Black arrows struck the ground, sticking into the soft dirt, into the trees.

One slammed into the trunk that Kimiko was clinging to.

Her glasses made he peripheral vision somewhat troubled, but she thought she saw something . . .

She turned and looked at the arrow.

Her eyes widened, "Get out of the tree!" She screamed to Chiwa and anyone else who might have taken refuge in the branches.

She tried to leap away herself, but the explosive tag went off and she was thrown several feet to the ground.

She hit the ground hard and rolled, she saw more enemy arrows sailing overhead.

Surely these would just be normal arrows, no army could afford too many explosive rounds, no army would waste them carelessly either, they were expensive.

But the arrows struck with a ripple of blasts and still more sailed over the hill.

And still more explosions; what was going on?

It was standard to use explosive tags on ballistae in order to help the oversized bolts break through walls and doors, but on _arrows_?

After the fall of Konoha she'd heard from that gorgeous Shikamaru that he'd used explosive arrows but of course they'd been limited to the number of tags and arrows they'd had on them.

The Empire had much, much more time to prepare and tinker with Shikamaru's old design and improve on it.

They could have mass produced them.

Taisho's horse reared up as the zealots poured over the hill.

The cavalry charged, several ninja leapt alongside with them, still more explosions cut through the dimming afternoon light.

Kimiko rose to her feet, Chiwa helped her up and she nodded to the shorn-headed woman, "We can't let them have all the fun, let's go!"

**To Be Continued . . .**

* * *

**Note: **The Ishida clan's daughters abilities are hinted at in the incomplete index, however their locations and powers are as follows;

**Ito Ichiteru - **her singing voice allows for a form of hypnosis and can generally put anyone to sleep; currently on the exile island.

**Ukita Minako - **she can discern the inner thoughts and intents of any individual she speaks to; Currently in the Lands of Lightning.

**Mori Aneko - **Doesn't really get bothered by extreme heat or cold, her endurance against the elements is ridiculous. Captured by Orochimaru.

**Hirate Emiko - **Never guesses wrong, but can't exactly tell the future, currently with the Wind army.

**Ishida Eri - **Can climb virtually any surface and stick to it without using her chakra the way ninja do. Captured by Orochimaru.


	61. Earth and Sound Strike

**Chapter Fifty-Nine**

Tomoko struck out, her chains flew through the air and ripped into the enemy cavalier.

The blade at the end of the chain cut through him, a metal claw attached to another chain tore him from his horse.

Tomoko threw his body into the air with the power of her chakra-animated chains, she could never have done it with her own hands of course.

He was struck by three explosive rounds that would have hit the line of infantry and archers advancing up the hill.

Tomoko had saved a man or two she supposed, but it wasn't enough.

The zealot archers were keeping a steady stream of arrows pouring down on the Lightning army as they advanced only the ninja and the cavalry were safe from the explosive arrows because they were engaged in a tooth and nail struggle against the masked minions of the Sound Empire.

She and Yuu weren't back to back, that was a stupid way to fight if you were a ninja, but they were close enough to help one another if it was necessary.

Yuu moved through the soldiers and even their steeds like a deadly ghost, striking down some, weakening others.

He steered clear of anyone with a chakra blade, chakra element attacks were his weakness unless it was an element he could control.

He couldn't control fire so Tomoko needed to be careful not to burn him . . . yet.

Would she have to burn him someday? Would he phase through her like a deadly ghost and strike out at her internal organs, claiming her life like the grim reaper?

It scared her how distracted she could become, even in the middle of a fight.

She just couldn't focus on the slaughter, she never had been able to disconnect from the killing before, before she could only ever think of the lives she was ending.

Now she could only ever think of the people she was betraying, and it scared her. She was deadly enough that she wasn't in much danger, especially with the man she planned to betray watching her back.

But she didn't even think about the men she was killing anymore.

There just . . . _were_. And she couldn't change that.

The battle was intensifying as the infantry from both sides entered the fray, trained soldiers just getting in the way of the ninja.

But then a stalagmite erupted from the ground near her and she heard someone shout, "Reinforcements!"

Not reinforcements for her side.

She turned in time to see several shinobi leaping towards her, they slashed into the Lightning soldiers and cavalry.

Earth soldiers were probably close behind, but her new focus needed to be on the man with the giant sword leaping towards her.

And the half dozen Jounin flanking him.

A massive badger threw itself at him, knocking him out of the air and a flurry of senbon forced one of the guards to substitute.

Her entire squad was by her side.

More than that, many of the Cloud ninja were rushing to her aid-well not specifically her aid, they were rushing to stop the new threat.

And they needed to; the man was clearly identifiable as his wind enhanced sword sliced Kimiko-senpai's badger minion right through the middle.

It was the Tsuchikage she and the others were facing.

* * *

Toshiie cut through the giant summoned monstrosity in one swift strike, then used the wind from his chakra sword to blow a cutting storm towards the group of shinobi.

He hit the ground on the stalagmite that Katashi had summoned and let himself slip into the earth, he tunneled through and emerged near a Cloud Jounin.

He emerged and stabbed the young woman through the back, but she fell through the blade, her hands passing through his body.

She took hold of his sword and pulled his hand wide, another woman with braided locks charged at him, she swept her arm towards him and a claw and chain shot out towards him.

He sneered and, being much stronger than the woman holding his sword he yanked forward, tossing the girl into her comrade's chains-which she just seemed to phase through-and slamming his sword into the claw, activating his wind chakra to turn the metal killing tool into so many broken shards.

Toshiie sneered and grabbed the chains with his free hand and yanked hard on them, bringing the pretty young woman closer to him.

Then she swept out with her other hand, and more chains came.

The Tsuchikage made a tactical withdrawal.

He used substitution and appeared behind the braided woman, he meant to stab her but her little friend grabbed her ankle and pulled her underground.

Wrong move.

Toshiie was about to go after them, but he didn't have the time, another woman, one dressed a little too well charged at him then, kunai in hand.

There was another woman too-did Cloud only employ women?

This one was scarred and her head was shorn, she seemed young and . . . familiar.

Toshiie threw the other woman to the side and Katashi was there to intercept her, she brought up a stone wall from the ground to block his initial attack but he just used her own wall to form a dozen earth spikes.

But she leapt back, avoiding them, Toshiie knew Katashi would deal with her in time however.

He turned to the bald woman and struck out with his sword, she threw a pair of senbon, one of which managed to hit him, sinking into his thigh, the other went wide.

Probably the direction she thought he'd dodge towards.

Toshiie swept his sword out, she moved back, he missed her by just a hair.

Another one of his ninja came in, the woman leapt onto his shoulders, standing on them at first, then dropping so that his head was between her thighs.

She then twisted sharply, snapping the man's neck, they fell forward and she tried to catapult the body to Toshiie but her victim became a stone statue instead.

He'd used stone substitution, the girl hadn't expected that and she stumbled, trapped beneath the stone.

Toshiie leapt in, sword held high. He brought it down sharply, he would have taken the girl's life.

But he stopped a mere millimeter from her.

He couldn't bring the sword any lower, his mind demanded he act but his hand refused.

What was this?

Katashi, seeing his Tsuchikage's predicament and perhaps even understanding rushed in and raised a kunai to kill the trapped woman but instead her white haired friend leapt through Toshiie and grabbed her, the two sank underground.

And Toshiie turned just in time to see the four chains wrap themselves around him, one had a claw like the one he'd destroyed, two ended in wicked blades and one . . . one had the shattered remains of the claw he'd damaged.

So she probably only had the four, and if he broke them she wouldn't get new ones . . .

Toshiie roared with ferocity as his put his impressive muscle against the tightening chains.

It'd been too long since he'd had a good fight.

The bespectacled woman charged in, with Katashi distracted momentarily she probably thought she had an ideal opportunity to kill the Tsuchikage, but as she got close Toshiie tore free of the chains, gripping one he lashed out, using it like a whip, and hit the woman across the face.

She flew back and the Jounin who'd used the stone substitute that trapped the shorn headed woman came in and tried to stab her in the throat, but she showed that she burst into a ball of lightning.

Toshiie felt a prickling at the back of his neck and turned just in time to see the kunai held by that same woman, the real woman, closing for his neck.

Free of the chains he was able to throw himself to the side just in time to avoid death, but she still managed to nick his neck.

It was probably nothing, but he was irritated that he'd been injured twice by these silly girls.

And he hadn't killed any of them yet.

He took the arm of the woman who'd tried to stab him in the back of the neck, he pulled her close and moved to stab her in the stomach but the chains wrapped themselves around his blade and halted his attack.

But more of his ninja were coming now, more of the enemy ninja were dying or withdrawing, these four Jounin were going to go down.

* * *

The forest was green and beautiful, but also starting to thin as they neared the deserts that made up much of the Lands of Wind.

Kyoko watched her Sensei as they marched with the army. Most of the ninja were leaping through the trees along the route, scouting ahead, but Kyoko and Temari didn't bother.

There were others to do that, and Gaara-sama was talking to Temari-sensei.

"We're going to have to sidestep the army." Gaara-sama said.

"Not necessarily," Temari-sensei said, "I think a large ninja strike force, especially one led by you, would slow them down and let our soldiers get a head start."

"Agreed," Gaara-sama said after a long consideration, "However I'm not so sure it should be a large group. An elite team."

"If the enemy has ninja with them we may be in trouble with too small a group," Temari said, "let me take a few scouts and look around, see if there's a large number of ninja, you follow behind with a well sized strike team and if it seems good we hit them."

Gaara-sama hesitated, then said, "I did bring you along as an advisor, I'd be foolish to ignore your advice. I'm worried though, if we leave the army without a strong ninja presence. I want you with the army in case something happens to the strike force."

"What?" Temari-sensei whispered sharply, "But then who's going to lead the scouting party? We don't have Kankuro. Are you thinking Matsuri?"

"No, Matsuri will be with me in the main strike force." Gaara-sama said. He tilted his head towards Kyoko, "She's a Jounin, she's in on the plan, and she's capable."

"Sp-special Jounin, Kazekage-sama." Kyoko whispered, her voice was dry and nervous.

Gaara shook his head, "Not anymore," Gaara-sama told her, "You're a Jounin now, just like Temari, consider yourself one of my officers."

Kyoko shook her head slowly, why the special treatment?

Temari smiled, "Yeah . . . yeah Kyoko would be a good choice to lead the scout team . . . and I'll stay with the army just in case." The older woman smiled at Kyoko, "Congratulations, Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko felt her throat tighten, Temari had hesitated before agreeing to her going . . . hadn't she?

Did she not trust her?

Kyoko felt sick, "I . . . I don't know if . . ."

Temari-sensei squeezed her shoulder, "You can do this."

"I . . . know . . ." Kyoko lied.

Did Temari-sensei have confidence in her or not? Did she deserve it or not?

She swallowed a lump in her throat, "I wont disappoint you, Kazekage-sama."

But had she already disappointed Temari-sensei?

She felt like she had.

And why not?

She'd killed Ryu, hadn't she? And now Gaara-sama wanted to give her command of a force, even a small force . . .

Temari-sensei must be horrified that Kyoko would screw up, and Kyoko was horrified herself.

She forced a smile, "I'll round up a team, four strong, we'll scout the area."

Temari smiled, "I'll tell Matsuri to round up your attack teams, Gaara."

The Kazekage nodded, and Kyoko set off.

_I can do this, I'll show you Temari-sensei, I won't disappoint you again and I won't disappoint me . . . I won't disappoint Ryu, I'm going to do this flawlessly!_

* * *

Shikamaru smirked, "We're hitting these five locations," He said, pointing out each one on the map, "It'll be a nice slap in the face for Orochimaru and hopefully a chance to get some intact data from his labs. I want each of you leading a strike force," he was speaking to Hinata, Sakura, Chouji and Ino, "Naruto will stay with the main force and continue on at a reduced rate, we'll catch up."

Shikamaru took a deep breath, "Jounin only strike forces, we'll each lead two three man teams leaving six ninja per team, thirty of us in all, operate as you see fit but I suggest using one team to hit the shrine and the second as backup. We have no reason to suspect typical ninja will be these locations, but the Five are fairly likely to show up. That gives us a chance to take them individually and assess their fighting styles, more importantly if we can get their host bodies alive it can give us a shot at figuring out how they do this Jutsu of theirs and how we can stop or disrupt it."

"To what end?" Ino asked.

Shikamaru shrugged, "Thought you would have guessed, Ino. If we can stop their Jutsu we can stop their whole "extra lives" nonsense, force them to fight us face to face in their real bodies."

Ino nodded, "Right, _right_. Sorry, we don't all think as far ahead as you." She smirked, "This is good, I can definitely take one of them alive, if I can get in their hosts' head I should be able to kick them right out."

"We're all capable of subduing them one way or another, yes even you Chouji. Hit these labs or shrines or whatever, capture whatever information we can and if the Five strike we assess them, we capture them."

Sakura nodded, "You've assembled teams for us?"

"Yes, only the best for this mission. Naruto will keep Lee with him of course, but this is a Jounin only op, nobody here is expendable, if for whatever reason you can't capture the objective, withdraw, don't spend your lives on this."

The living legends all nodded, and Shikamaru turned to Nao and Yomiko.

Of course with Ino and Chouji assigned elsewhere there was no one else he'd consider for his three man team.

* * *

Kotaro felt uncomfortable sitting at the large dining room table, and Kasumi looked practically dead.

She was very pale and she had no appetite, but Kabuto was insisting she eat so she was trying.

The meal was mostly for the benefit of their two new guests.

They were with the Ishida clan apparently, Kotaro was pretty sure he'd never heard of it, and only one of them was even named Ishida, the other was named Mori.

Mori Aneko seemed afraid, which was probably smart on her part, but Ishida Eri seemed agitated.

"Lord Shogun, what about my companion, the one that was brought in with me?"

Kabuto glanced away from his meal to Eri and said, "You haven't eaten a bite; you need your strength, I'll be starting my research on you in the morning."

Eri shuddered, "And what will that entail?"

Kabuto's eyes lit up, an artist eager to talk about his art, Kotaro supposed as Kabuto answered, "Blood work mostly, to start. I don't expect to cut into you or anything, but we'll draw some blood and see if it holds any secrets . . . then I may cut, but as I said I don't expect to."

Eri looked away, she was trying to look brave but Kotaro could see she was shaking.

"What about me?" Aneko whispered.

"You've only just arrived, you'll have the day off . . . you know it might be fun to let you watch me work on your sister . . . every day would be like a preview of what's coming for you, and we'll have the added benefit of knowing what _not _to do to you if anything should prove . . . fatal to her."

"Oh god, please . . ." Aneko moaned softly.

"No need to beg, consider it done." Kabuto said, "but it _is _always nice to hear the magic word."

He and Shiroi laughed, Kotaro just felt the voices in his head tell him to.

But he didn't.

"This isn't okay . . ." He mumbled.

"In sadder news," Kabuto spoke over him, "We received word from your father, Kotaro-kun, he's on the frontline leading our Shinobi against Lighting. They struck a decisive blow, this afternoon, the fighting's still going on but it seems the wayward sheep from the Lands of Earth returned to the flock, our little crisis might be over."

"How lovely." Shiroi said brightly.

Kotaro looked at Kabuto, "My father?"

"Yes, after he saw you and Kasumi get married he went off with the army, had to ensure the future for his grandchildren after all."

"Grandchildren?" Kotaro grunted. He raised an eyebrow at Kasumi but she shook her head.

"I don't think so . . ." Kasumi mumbled, "I don't want kids."

"Dear girl your reproductive ability is the only reason you're alive." Kabuto laughed.

"What?" Kasumi asked, and Kotaro noticed her hand drift over her chest, "Alive? Yeah, I was . . ."

"You know, from an evolutionary standpoint I mean," Kabuto interjected sharply, "if you're not having children you're useless."

"I-I'm not useless . . ." Kasumi mumbled.

"Lots of women never have children," Eri spoke up, "why are you pressuring her? She's barely more than a kid."

"Like I said," Kabuto said, "it's the only reason she's alive. As for you, just eat up. Like I said, you're going to need your strength for tomorrow."

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **That's right, two updates this weekend. "For to help catch up and reach conclusion" and such. Remember to review, or hit the message board and such, and happy holidays to those who celebrate them.


	62. Laugh in the face of Death

**Chapter Sixty**

Toshiie laughed as the fighting began to die down again.

The two sides-and three armies-had been going at it on and off for pretty much of the day; one side would win an advantage and push the other back a bit, the withdrawing side would regroup and then push back for renewed carnage.

This was made possible by the thousands of meat bags that called themselves warriors; though the Samurai were sometimes formidable the truth was that none of the rank and file soldiers could hope to compete with a ninja, and in a ninja conflict such a long battle would have ended much sooner.

However no one was able to use truly devastating techniques, the infantries were far too mingled for that, the best opportunities were for those who could bypass the melee and get into enemy lines where they were either slaughtered by waiting elites-Cloud's Hishu units seemed singularly determined to ensure the stability of the soldier ranks while Earth's own Jounin were doing the same and presumably the zealots did too-or to see their Jutsu negated by some smartass from the other side.

Or both, so the smart ninja had stopped trying and were focused on being as devastating as possible in the melee.

Toshiie had lost count of the heads he'd taken, and he wouldn't want to count them anyway, not a single Samurai or soldier had provided a decent fight.

That was about to change, he'd already singled out his next target and it was the perfect time to strike.

The enemy lines were withdrawing, it was their turn to do so, and part of the rearguard-a very dangerous job as Iwao had learned-was a samurai who fought like some sort of legend become flesh, cutting down any foe who neared him.

He fought with two swords cutting down soldier after soldier, a Chuunin rushed in, obviously unaware that the Tsuchikage had set his sights on the foe; but the samurai saw the young woman and leapt into the air deftly striking out, forcing her short blade wide with one of his katanas, then slashing her throat with the other, the ninja didn't substitute for some reason and Toshiie suspected he knew why.

That was a chakra blade, he could sense it. It must be enhanced with the wind element, he'd used a Jutsu or whatever Samurai had in place of them to lengthen the blade so that the girl would have thought it was coming short only to be rudely surprised even as she no doubt planned her counter attack.

A move worthy of a Shinobi.

Toshiie laughed loudly, hungrily as he approached his foe, he shouted "No one aids me in this, just keep help away."

"Lord Tsuchikage-" Katashi began to protest but Toshiie laughed and rushed forward, the enemy Samurai saw him and dodged out of the way nimbly.

He'd leapt to the right so Toshiie swiped to the right with his massive sword and stomped on the ground, forming a half-hand seal with his free hand hoping the Samurai would think he'd used the stalagmite Jutsu the Earth shinobi were famous for.

A Ninja would probably know he hadn't, but the Samurai . . .

Apparently either guessed or was just too stupid to know what Toshiie did because he didn't stumble trying to avoid it the way the Tsuchikage had hoped.

He struck out with the sword and the Samurai leapt into the air, swinging his own chakra blade. The two wind weapons met and Toshiie laughed again.

"It's always a pleasure to kill a fellow artisan, it makes me more . . . unique. Tell me, warrior, what is your name?"

"Why does it matter?" The Samurai scoffed.

"I want to know which family I should mail your head to when I take it; and if you put up a good fight I might even choose to give your family a quick death when we destroy your traitorous nation."

The man laughed and shook his head, "You've grossly miscalculated, Tsuchikage, I will not be easy prey."

The two men leapt into action, swords clashing, Toshiie striking hard and fast but the samurai moving even faster.

Despite the speed the man was still smart, when Toshiie left an opening on purpose the Samurai ignored it, but when the man saw an opening he struck quick.

Too quick, twice Toshiie was forced to use a stone barrier to protect himself, successfully cutting off the attack of his foe's blade.

And then he made the mistake of trusting too much in the barrier, it had succeeded twice before he saw no reason for it to fail him.

So when he spotted the chakra blade coming in for a strike he quickly raised another shield of earth and prepared to strike out from behind it, hopefully taking the man's arm.

This time there was a flash, the chakra blade in the man's left arm, the blade he had hitherto suspected was just a typical katana cut through the stone barrier cackling with electricity.

Toshiie was taken aback by the move and the blade nicked his thigh.

He was furious, to be _injured, _even slightly by samurai trash . . .

But he laughed, least his men think him weak and shouted, "You are _very _good," as he swept his own sword out to divert the next attack.

The samurai glared at him, his face hidden behind a warrior's mask and helmet as all samurai were, all Toshiie could see were eyes as determined to kill as he was.

And he was elated, a bit of a wound to remind him what pain was and a worthy if unexpectedly so opponent to kill.

This was the way of the Stone Shinobi.

* * *

"What's going on?" Yuu demanded.

"What?" Tomoko asked, "Have they broken through?"

She didn't get an answer, her would-be-paramour was already walking for the battle lines.

Their squadron had fallen back to take a break, ninja couldn't fight all day long and they, like the samurai and conscripts had taken it in turns to rest while others did the fighting, this had resulted in being pushed back fewer times as there were almost always reasonably fresh troops ready to jump in and replace a battle weary battalion.

Daimyo Taisho was showing _some _skill as a commander in that respect at least; outnumbered they were holding their ground.

Still their turn to fight again hadn't come and Yuu was rushing for the battle.

Tomoko followed him on principle. She didn't quite know what principle, but she followed him anyway, calling after him, "What is it? Why are we going back already?"

"We're going back already?" Chiwa moaned.

"Yuu, are you insane? We don't have orders to-" Kimiko-senpai was saying then she swore loudly, "Yuu, stop! You won't do any good!"

"What? What does he see?" Tomoko demanded.

But neither answered her, and seeing three Jounin charging the rest of their battle group must have gotten the wrong idea and soon the other ninja who'd been resting were on their feet and rushing for the fight.

Tomoko followed Yuu, even when their group leader tried to seize control of the chaos and lead them towards a strategically viable location Tomoko followed Yuu.

He was the one person in this brawl that mattered to her.

He phased through the line of allied soldiers-doing them no damage-but Tomoko had to start leaping on people's shoulders and avoiding spears when she reached it.

She nearly lost Yuu in the crowd but she did see what he'd seen from the hill.

His brother-in-law fighting for his life against the Tsuchikage while Earth's elite kept anyone else from interfering.

Tomoko wasn't thrilled with the idea of facing the Tsuchikage again, she was still a little shaken from the earlier encounter.

But she'd rested some, hopefully he hadn't.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and leapt for the fight; she'd support Yuu.

From the shoulders of the soldiers she could see that not only were Earth's elite keeping any shinobi from interfering the infantry was pushing back Lightning's men so that few ninja were really trying.

A good Hattori would be able to get Takumi out of there but none would know he was in danger, or even a person worth the risk.

Probably because the only Hattori to whom Takumi might have been worth said risk to, Tetsuo, was in the thick of the fight somewhere else, he wasn't likely to know his old friend was about ten seconds away from being slaughtered.

Tomoko saw Yuu, he couldn't phase forever and when he'd made it through the allied lines he phased through one man, taking his spear and stabbed it into the chest of an enemy samurai.

It went too deep and didn't come out so Yuu quickly reached out and took the Samurai's sword, phasing through several attacks that would have ended him if he were anyone else.

Anyone like Tomoko-why was she doing this again? He seemed like he'd be fine getting through the infantry, but _she _couldn't phase. She was getting nervous . . .

Kimiko managed to leap ahead of her as her doubts slowed her and it would be a moment that she would regret for the rest of her life.

That moment when she doubted herself, doubted Yuu, and started to lag behind.

That moment when she'd slowed down that extra second before picking up speed again, that moment that she let Kimiko pass her when it should have been _her _that arrived at the scene after Yuu, when it should have been _her _there to help with the fight.

That moment when her actions and inactions would cost her something that could never be replaced; the life of a friend.

* * *

Toshiie struck quickly, he struck with force, the smaller weaker samurai had speed but not Toshiie's level of force, and the hard blows were wearing him down.

So Toshiie, exhilarated but far from stupid, gave a subtle signal to Katashi, one that said "don't kill him, I'll do that" a signal that did _not _say "continue not interfering".

And so the Jounin did spring in to action, throwing several shuriken that the Samurai was forced to deflect, exposing him to Toshiie.

Who ever said ninja had to fight fair? Toshiie had recognized that he would have won in time and thus he was satisfied to end the fight and use the time saved to kill more enemies.

The Tsuchikage struck out and-

There was a blast of smoke, Toshiie staggered back and with their Tsuchikage in danger his honor guard fell in, ignoring his earlier order to stay away, perhaps even thinking it was required or expected by Katashi joining the fight.

The samurai had used substitution, it took Toshiie a moment to realize it and luckily Katashi was there fighting against the two-bladed samurai, keeping him away from his Tsuchikage.

Toshiie sprang forward, shoving past his guards and added his blade to the fight, the Samurai was finished now, he fell back, he stumbled when Katashi really did call a stone to trip him and then-

Then the moment was stolen, a severed hand of all things was hurtled at Toshiie as a familiar young woman broke through the lines like a ghost moving through a wall.

Toshiie had caught the hand and in disgust he was about to toss it to Katashi when he noticed that it was gripping a crumpled paper bomb.

The Tsuchikage barely had time to throw the gory weapon away from himself when it went off, still the cloud of smoke caused by the blast obscured his vision for an instant and in that instant the ivory-haired Jounin struck at him, a no-doubt stolen katana in hand.

Toshiie toyed with the ninja for two blows, not using the wind chakra of his blade to obliterate the inferior metal, then just as the Samurai had done to him before he truly struck on the third blow, igniting the chakra in his blade and shattering the katana.

The stunned Jounin began to dodge but was too slow, the blade descended rapidly, slicing the air and then cutting in to soft human flesh.

Toshiie screamed in rapturous joy as he sliced into the Jounin.

Not the one with white hair, she'd been knocked out of the way by the older, bespectacled woman.

The older, bespectacled kunoichi who now lacked half her left forearm and of course the hand attached to it, no ninja could ever afford to lose a hand.

She screamed in pain as she fell to the ground, chains shot from the sky and tore Toshiie's blade arm away but it was too late, their user had been too slow and Toshiie grasped the chains with his free hand and pulled the woman down from the sky.

She hit the ground hard and he stomped on her chest, no escape this time.

He brought his sword down on her for a killing bow only to have it ripped from his hands by her white haired partner who took it from him as she passed through his body and with a fluid motion she struck out with a blow that would have decapitated Toshiie if he didn't substitute.

From his new vantage point he hovered over the injured kunoichi, she was struggling to get to her feet, still holding the bloodied stump of her arm when Toshiie took the kunai from her own equipment pouch and slammed it hard into her kidney.

He twisted it for good measure and shoved her forward to her friends.

The young darker skinned woman screamed in a mixture of rage, shock and probably sadness, ah to be weak enough to cry for a comrade.

Toshiie smirked at them and said, "I'll be taking my sword now."

"Take one of mine, Tsuchikage-_sama_," Said the samurai from before, who'd become so much less important when the real ninja showed up. His voice was dripping with disdain for Toshiie's title and sarcasm at the honorific.

He said it as Toshiie felt something sharp bite into his back, ripping through his stomach and emerging on the other side. Whatever his voice had been dripping his blade dripped blood.

Wind chakra flowed through it, he knew the lightning blade had to be next, he didn't even bother with any sort of earth shield.

Instead he rolled and sprang to his feet, he grabbed the man's left hand, the one holding the sword and crushed as hard as he could as he pulled his foe to him for a skewering bear hug.

The blade had cut through Toshiie's stomach, a grievouswound to be sure, but due to the difference in their height it slammed much closer to the samurai's chest, perhaps even piercing his heart. or at least a lung.

Toshiie laughed, "Two good opponents . . . good deal."

"Tsuchikage-sama's injured!" Katashi roared, "Get him to safety, fall back!"

"Do it and die!" Toshiie roared over Katashi, "Press the attack, kill them all!"

He staggered back and tore the blade from his back.

He felt his knees hit the ground . . . had he, the Tsuchikage, fallen to them?

He laughed as the ivory haired shinobi rushed for him with his own sword, she was clearly furious.

He just laughed as Katashi grabbed the woman from behind and wrestled the sword from her grasp as she used whatever Jutsu she was using to phase through him and reach Toshiie.

She punched him in the face as hard as a man would and screamed something at him but his hearing was getting fuzzy.

Still he doubted he'd die like this, he wasn't feeling any of the symptoms of death, and he would know: he'd died before.

And been resurrected by the hold Emperor himself.

Toshiie would do anything his God-Emperor ordered of him, he did not fear death.

But he did find its effect on his enemies hilarious.

He just kept laughing as the girl punched him in the face over and over and as the world got dark.

Until finally he couldn't laugh anymore.

* * *

Katashi held the Tsuchikage's chakra blade in his hand, whatever the Cloud Jounin was doing to pass through solid objects he wasn't doing it as he punched the ever-loving shit out of the Tsuchikage's likely dead body.

Based on that Katashi could probably have cut the boy down.

He didn't.

The youth had charged through the lines to save that one man, no doubt a friend or perhaps a family member only to fail.

Katashi knew all about losing family.

And he wasn't terribly opposed to seeing Toshiie die, or at the very least lose all his teeth.

So he stood back and let the boy go.

He . . . understood the desire to inflict pain one someone you hated, even if they couldn't feel the pain.

He'd killed Iwao after all, Toshiie hadn't felt that.

The soldiers were falling back, the enemy line was pushing too hard, new ninja had joined the fight and the infantry line was being overwhelmed.

The dark skinned girl rushed over to her friend and pulled him away from the Tsuchikage as two of Toshiie's honor guard sprang to action, the shock of losing their Tsuchikage-no doubt compounded by Katashi's own inaction-having worn off.

They moved to strike the boy but Katashi rebuked them, "Take the Tsuchikage to safety, we might still be able to save him and every second counts! The rest of you fall back, we'll get them in the next attack!"

Katashi nodded to the two Cloud Jounin as he backed away from them.

Their own soldiers reached them, they were safe . . . for the moment.

He turned and ran for the Earth lines.

It was true, Toshiie _could _be saved.

But Katashi truly hoped he wouldn't be.

* * *

Yuu's fists were bloody and the blood wasn't all the Tsuchikage's, his hands hurt and he was virtually out of chakra.

Tomoko held on to him as their soldiers pushed the enemy lines back.

He'd known Takumi was in danger and he'd acted without though, he hadn't expected Kimiko-sensei to follow him, hadn't _asked _her to.

Why had she done it?

Why had Tomoko?

Why had _he_?

He struggled against the crowds to reach Takumi before he was trampled-advancing armies cared little for the fallen.

The former assassin was bleeding horribly, but he was still alive.

Yuu dared to hope his Sensei might be too . . .

But one look and he knew the truth.

Still he whispered, "T-Tomoko, Kimiko-sensei . . . ch-check if-"

"She's not." Tomoko wept, "I . . . she was dead in my arms, Yuu . . . she's gone."

It didn't seem real.

Kimiko-sensei was a genius tactician, a Jounin.

She'd trained him and his team, she'd survived so many battles, she'd recovered from a crippling injury to her spine, she'd survived the massive battle at the end of the last war . . .

She couldn't die here in some nameless field.

And yet she had . . .

And Yuu could feel Takumi slipping away too. He mumbled, "Medic . . . g-get a medic."

He didn't know if Tomoko heard him or not, didn't know if he'd been loud enough to hear over the din of battle.

Takumi, his brother-in-law, the man who'd been a part of his and his sister's lives for as long as he could remember . . . his Sensei, like another sister, even a sort of adopted mother to him . . .

They couldn't both die.

Yuu smiled a forced smile at Takumi, "Y-you can't die yet, Kaori hasn't given birth . . . your kids need you and you haven't even named the third one."

Takumi didn't speak he just smiled, his was more genuine but a little sad.

He knew . . .

No, no he'd given up, that was what it was. Yuu shook him, "Don't give up," he tried to shout but his voice was weak, "Kaori can't raise three kids on her own, she couldn't even raise _me _on her own . . . don't you leave her!"

He shook his head as Takumi's eyes slowly closed.

Yuu just kept shaking his head, he whispered, "I got the bastard, if nothing else I got him . . . if he lives I'll make sure he wishes he'd died here." Yuu added, remembering that Jounin remark that the Tsuchikage could be saved.

He also remembered the mocking laughter as he'd hit the man, the pure evil in that hateful cackle.

The laugh of a man for whom the darkest most torturous afterlife would be too damn generous.

Takumi's chest was barely rising anymore, each breath was weaker and more strained but Yuu heard the man whisper one last word.

The medics arrived and pulled Takumi away from Yuu's grasp, another went to inspect Tosa-sensei but moved on almost right away, solid and damning confirmation of the truth.

The armies advanced past them, ninja, samurai, and conscripted peasants all fighting in a massive melee of blood and death and in the center of it he knelt, blind and deaf to all of it.

Tomoko held him tightly, war raged all around him but for that instant there were only four people in the world to Yurei Yuu.

And two of them were dead.

**To Be Continued . . .**

* * *

**Long Note: **First thanks to all you readers and especially all you reviewers for all the support and don't hate me too much for this chapter; the rest of the note is separated for easy skipping of boring topics.

**Death) **This was not an easy chapter to write and even now I'm pretty apprehensive about it. Takumi barely got to participate in this story and Kimiko has always been a private favorite of mine, I knew this was coming, that this was how the story went . . . but . . . well, these chapters can be hard.

**Where are they now?) **In regards to Tenten and Lee, neither is dead they're both with Naruto and the main Konoha force. As for Kiba and Shino, well we'll see them very soon. Kakashi isn't with Naruto yet but we'll see him soon too.

**Sequel) **On the subject of another sequel, well I'm on the fence about that. I have ideas for it, there are like five things in place already set up for it, but we'll see how things look after Old Souls, I may just be able to write a finale so conclusive and fantastic that no further sequels are needed, or I may screw up so badly that readership dwindles to no one and a sequel becomes pointless.


	63. Uncle Sand Wants You!

**Chapter Sixty-One**

Kyoko watched as the column of soldiers marched wearily towards the city of Waves.

She felt sorry for them really, a lot were probably her age or even younger. They were just kids who'd been too young to be recruited four years ago and were now strong enough to hold spears and wear basic armors.

Had they even been trained?

Not so long ago she was a member of _their _ninja force, she was honor bound to serve them and their country.

Now she was a rebel seeking to throw down the corrupt government and replace it with one more suitable in her own eyes . . . what a life.

Kyoko swallowed a lump in her throat, what they were about to do almost felt wrong.

Almost.

These men were serving a false god who called himself Emperor of the world; any who wouldn't rise up and throw such a pretender down deserved nothing short of total annihilation.

Right?

It was hard to tell. It was hard to be sure of anything anymore.

Yomiko would probably know . . . Yomiko seemed to know everything, or at least she seemed to think she did.

Nao would probably tell her that it was wrong to kill these people, but then Nao didn't like killing at all.

What would Ryu have said?

What would Kotaro-kun, or Yukio have said for that matter?

If they weren't the Emperor's slaves that was.

The very thought made Kyoko's blood boil and she nearly leapt from the trees to attack caught up in a strange daze of aggressive feelings that didn't feel at all like her.

She knew it was the mark, it was a lot more persistent since she'd used it, she felt more irritable, readier to start a fight.

Or maybe that was just her and the mark was a convenient excuse . . . she didn't know anymore.

She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, only it wasn't made of flesh, it was made of sand.

Lord Gaara was on the tree branch not far behind her, he'd reached out with his sand, he'd probably seen her about to attack, but realized there was no need to stop her when she didn't.

That he'd arrived without her notice only showed how thoroughly caught up in her own mind she'd been and she felt ashamed.

But Lord Gaara approached her and whispered, "See the Taisho there?" He pointed to a man riding on horseback along the side of the infantry line; "He's the most important player on the field. Be prepared, Matsuri and the rest are watching you; when you move to attack they will too."

"Why me?" Kyoko whispered.

"Because you'll be watching me; when I raise my hand you'll know to move in." Lord Gaara told her.

But that hadn't been what Kyoko meant . . . still she didn't dare press the issue with the Kazekage.

He leapt down from the tree and disappeared, Kyoko kept her eyes on the slowly advancing line of soldiers.

Then in a flash walls of sand rose up, in the trees Kyoko could still see the soldiers but they soldiers wouldn't be able to find cover, they were in a canyon made by the Kazekage's sand.

Kyoko wondered if the Kazekage had managed to create the sand walls along the entire battle line, or if he'd only trapped the vanguard, she knew Lord Gaara's power was immense but he was only human.

She saw him appear in the sand, a dozen or so sand clones and they spoke with his voice; he wanted the soldiers to hear what he was going to say.

"You've gone far enough, the Land of Waves is liberated and returned to the rule of her proper Daimyo." Lord Gaara said.

Kyoko saw the Taisho raise his spear, "We will not be frightened by your tricks, demon!"

"Then you can die fighting for the false god; let your men decide whether or not they want to live for their country."

"The Emperor _is _the country!" The Taisho roared.

Lord Gaara went on, ignoring him, "Not far from here our army marches. They're soldiers just like you from villages all over the Land of Wind. Men, not ninja. They are going to throw down this false god, they are going to restore the world to its proper order. We are your brothers, you can join us and take back your lands or force our hand; but one way or another this army will not reach the Land of Waves under the banners of war."

The tension in the air was thick, Kyoko felt herself shaking, watching to see if Lord Gaara would raise his hand or not.

Lord Gaara said, "Those of you who will join us, throw your weapons to the ground."

And just like that, the Kazekage had given the men a simple choice; drop their weapons and join the rebellion or continue to fight and risk his wrath.

* * *

Karin smiled as Suigetsu polished his sword.

He glared at her, he wanted to run the massive blade right through her.

But the woman just smiled.

She sat down on a log nearby and said, "We successfully loaded everything onto the Amagiri without anyone noticing; the test subjects and scientists from the shrine we captured intact are all on their way back home; I'll analyze them when I get the chance."

"Good of you to talk about it so openly." Suigetsu scoffed.

"It doesn't matter, Sasuke's people are under close watch and he's with them. He won't hear us, they wont hear us, we can speak freely."

Suigetsu nodded and asked, "So what's the verdict?"

"Hmm? On what?" Karin asked, and he threw his whetstone to the ground in frustration.

She laughed softly, "Oh you mean that? Yeah well . . . it's far too soon to tell really, I need more time. Don't worry, it'll all work out; everything else has."

Suigetsu shook his head, "We've had heavy losses so far, heavier than we expected."

"So has everyone else. Don't worry." Karin shrugged, adjusting her glasses.

Suigetsu shook his head, "Why wouldn't I worry? This is the final stretch, if anything goes wrong-"

"What happened to you?" Karin demanded, "You used to _live _for risks."

"I'm sure I'd remember that." Suigetsu said dismissively.

"You weren't such a coward before, but now you're quaking. If something goes wrong _you _deal with it, you're the brawn in this partnership."

"Partnership?" Suigetsu hissed, "I am the Mizukage, _I _am in command!"

"You wouldn't _be_ Mizukage without my help, Suigetsu." Karin said firmly, "You won't _stay _Mizukage without my help."

Suigetsu glowered; she was underestimating him.

Or maybe he was overestimating himself.

Didn't matter, either way ground rules needed to be established. He said, "Whatever happens Karin, you need to make sure our plans come to fruition, and I need to know I can trust you to do that."

"Suigetsu, I'm just as eager as you are to rule the world; I'm not going to throw that chance away because Sasuke says 'jump', I'll still ask him 'how high' but it'll be to fulfill my own curiosity and nothing else. I'm loyal to the plan, I'm loyal to ruling the world; as long as you're part of that I'm loyal to you. "

Suigetsu frowned, he didn't trust Karin, he didn't like Karin.

But he needed her, at least for a while longer.

"And if anything happens to _me_," Karin added, "I need to know that you're willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish our plans without my help."

"Are you crazy?" Suigetsu demanded, "I don't know anything about Orochimaru's experiments!"

Karin stared at him for a moment, then he added ,"I know I was _part _of them, but I wasn't running any of them; you were one of his assistants! An officer!"

"Yeah, or something like that;" Karin scoffed, "So . . . then I guess that means . . . technically speaking of course . . . I'm more important than you, Mizukage-sama."

Suigetsu's eyes blazed, he'd walked right into that one.

He glared but Karin was up and walking away; he thought of saying something really mean but he wasn't that childish.

"Yeah, well you're also fat!" Suigetsu called after her.

Okay, maybe he _was _that childish.

* * *

Gaara inhaled deeply as many of the soldiers dropped their weapons, some raised their hands.

The officers rushed to discipline them, and Gaara let his sands discipline the officers; snapping their spears in half or bending their katanas with sand tendrils.

More soldiers dropped their weapons and some of the officers who still had weapons dropped theirs as well.

The Taisho glowered and shouted, "Anyone loyal to the emperor follow me!"

The man was delusional, there was no way he was going to accomplish anything as he charged at one of the sand walls.

But Gaara wasn't going to kill him.

He let his sand wall fall down on the army, every single soldier.

But it didn't crush them, it crushed any weapon still in hand, leaving those that had been dropped but covering them in sand so that no one could take them.

Gaara showed himself to the Taisho, covered in sand and helpless.

He said "You and your loyalists will not be killed, even if you're enemies of mine you're still men of Wind."

The samurai spat in his face and growled, "You're an enemy of humanity! You and ever other ninja!"

Gaara smiled, "I'm leaving; and I'm taking the men who still know right from wrong and we will reclaim our home. You and your men will be stuck in the sand right up until the moment I am out of range; then you can follow us, unarmed since we'll be taking all the intact weapons with us . . . or go on to Waves and see what sort of reception you get there. Perhaps you can go straight to the capital."

The Taisho glared at him, "The Emperor will see you get what's coming to you!"

"I look forward to that; but if you don't mind I've got a liberation to finish."

Gaara looked up to the trees where Kyoko was waiting.

Hopefully this made her feel more trusted, it was something Temari had mentioned being concerned about; but in a ninja's life there sometimes cam a point where one was forced to turn their blade to an old friend or comrade, Kyoko had been unfortunate enough to experience that.

It didn't make her any less valuable as a shinobi of Sand.

The dropped weapons rose from the sand, returning to the hands of those who had thrown them down, the strike teams emerged from the trees to lead the soldiers back towards the heard of the Land of Winds.

Kyoko leapt out of the trees and landed near Gaara, "Why didn't you tell me you were going to recruit them all?" She demanded.

"Because I wasn't." Gaara whispered, "I had every intention of striking, breaking their morale and crushing this army here and now."

Kyoko seemed confused, "Then . . . why?"

"I looked at the faces of the assembled army the same as you must have;" Gaara said, "too many sons of Wind, too many barely more than children. I realized we're all fighting for the same thing; we're fighting for the Land of Wind."

Kyoko nodded and tilted her head to the men still trapped up to their ankles in sand, "What about them?"

"When this is all over we'll see where they stand; if they survive." Gaara said, "If they join the zealots we'll have to fight them; if they have a change of heart and join us . . ."

"Do we trust these men?" Kyoko asked, "The ones who did join us?"

"We have to trust someone. This isn't _exactly _according to plan, but if it works we steal one army from Orochimaru and we gain one for ourselves. If nothing else we can just ask Lady Emiko."

Kyoko nodded, but Gaara added, "Find Matsuri and tell her to keep her eyes peeled, some of these surrendered men are probably shinobi, and any ninja who served the emperor after Konoha fell probably still will. When you've done that find me again, I'll need you."

Kyoko nodded again and Gaara watched as more than two thirds of the army of Wind turned around and marched back for the capital.

He nodded to the Taisho one last time, and then began to walk away.

He'd lied about his range, he would get out of sight then wait in the trees until the army was safely away.

Then he'd fly away with the help of Kyoko and her fan, leaving the enemy with an impression of power far greater than he had.

It would either make them think twice about returning to Orochimaru, or give Orochimaru an inaccurate estimating of Gaara's own power, hopefully drawing some of the focus off of the other invading armies.

He smiled to himself; Temari and Matsuri would know not to combine the two advancing armies until he and Emiko gave the go ahead, and if it turned out that these men were trustworthy another devastating blow had been struck against Orochimaru's empire.

Gaara just hoped everyone else was having the same kind of luck.

* * *

Tomoko watched Yuu as he sat alone away from the fire.

Everyone was quiet, Kimiko had been a pretty well liked shinobi but Tomoko knew better than to think it was just because of her.

Everyone had lost someone, they'd pushed Sound and Earth's combined armies back but it'd cost them dearly.

And a more lasting victory against those two armies . . . well Tomoko just didn't know.

Kimiko would have known, she probably would have had a bunch of plans to take to the Raikage.

Tomoko shuddered, if she'd been just a little faster, if she hadn't _hesitated_ she could have pulled the Tsuchikage's blade hand away in time to save Kimiko's arm.

And if Kimiko-san hadn't lost her arm she wouldn't have been in shock, she would have substituted or better still not been in a situation to allow the Tsuchikage to get behind her.

Tomoko felt sick to her stomach. She'd failed another friend, she'd failed again.

She was a spy for Konoha, and she held the rank of Jounin in Kumo, but her performance had been the same as a cowardly Genin's.

She'd cried as many tears as her body could produce and it didn't help anything; it just made her feel more empty inside.

She didn't have any more tears to cry, but she still felt like she was crying; it wasn't just the loss of Kimiko and Takumi, both of whom had always been really great to her, it was seeing how badly Yuu was doing now; he'd lost two mentors, two parental figures, two friends when he'd already lost too many of those in the past.

And Tomoko, one of the last people he had left to call friend, was bound to betray him someday.

She hated herself. She was to blame for all of it.

She tore her flak jacket off and threw it into the fire.

"What are you doing?" Chiwa asked.

"To hell with it . . ." Tomoko whispered, "I'm not a Shinobi. I don't deserve to call myself a ninja, I screw up too often I cost people too much."

Chiwa frowned and quickly yanked the vest out of the fire.

She covered it with dirt to put out the flames that'd caught, and then handed it back to Tomoko.

"Don't be that way," Chiwa said, "You're still a shinobi, everyone makes mistakes . . . whatever mistake you made I'm sure you're not the only person in the history of the world to pull it off."

Tomoko shook her head, "I'm worthless. I didn't stop the Tsuchikage in time, I'm not a Jounin . . . I'm not anything, I'm a lump, a waste of flesh, I'm trash!"

Chiwa glared at her, "Stop that! Let's be real here, I wasn't even _there_, I got stopped much sooner . . . how do you think I feel? You guys believed in me or at least you trusted me enough to give me a weapon and let me fight for your side and what happened? At a time when I could have repaid that debt I didn't have the skill to make it to the party but I know I'm not worthless."

The shorter woman sat down next to Tomoko and offered her the flak jacket, which Tomoko didn't take.

"We just have to get them back, y'know? Now trust me, you're not worthless. You're a Jounin, but that was the Tsuchikage, he's the strongest ninja in his village. If you'd tried to get in his way maybe you'd be dead too."

"Maybe Kimiko and Takumi wouldn't be." Tomoko snapped.

She stood up and took a couple of steps away from everyone else, she grabbed her hair and lightly tugged on it in frustration, "I always mess up! Now I've cost us something we'll never get back, I've cost us friends! Because of me Kimiko is dead, it's me, all me, I hesitated and _she _paid for my weakness! Just like my dad, just like Kyusaku, hell just like the Chuunin exam where I met Yuu and nearly killed my own stupid self! Don't you understand, Chiwa? You shouldn't be trying to make me feel better, you should be keeping your distance and hoping I don't get you killed too, I'm the worst kind of imbecile, the kind that gets her friends killed!"

She felt Yuu's surprisingly strong arms wrap around her and hold her tightly.

She'd been so busy throwing her fit that she hadn't noticed him, yet another sign that she had no business being a Jounin.

Yuu held her tightly, he didn't say anything he just held her.

She closed her eyes and realized that was all she needed for the moment. She didn't want words.

But when words came again, they came from Chiwa; and they weren't bad.

"Nothing you can do will bring back the dead; but if you feel like you didn't do right by them in life do right by them now. Your dad, your friends, Kimiko-sama and that samurai . . . all the guys out there who died . . . do right by 'em and make the enemy pay for what they did."

Tomoko heard the words and she agreed with them wholeheartedly.

That was why she had to stop now; she couldn't be a ninja anymore; she just wasn't the sort of person who was cut out for it.

She was too stupid, too slow, too weak.

She closed her eyes and just enjoyed being held by the man she loved.

Then the bad news came.

She heard a murmur run through the assembled ninja and Samurai, she heard Tetsuo's voice nearby addressing the camp. He said, "Orders from the Daimyo himself . . . we're pulling out in the cover of darkness. We're to return to the land of Lightning, we're sitting out the rest of this war."

Tomoko shook her head slowly. She'd take that as a sign; even the universe wanted her out of the war sooner rather than later.

And yet this was pretty much the sort of thing they'd kept her in Kumo for . . . to be able to report if something like this happened, to prevent it if she had any way of doing so.

_Send a message to Shikamaru-sensei telling him what's happened. Along with it tell him you're out, you resign. You know you can't do this anymore, you're just not up to it. _She thought to herself.

But even so Shikamaru-sensei would probably find out about Lightning's withdraw the hard way long before any message she could send would find him; because with Lightning and Cloud pulling out Earth and Sound would be free to leave a token guard on the border and then hit the other invading armies with full force.

* * *

Katashi sat near the campfire besides the medical tent, it was night and for some reason neither side was really trying anymore.

In the dark ninja were more effective than soldiers, but both Earth and Sound had received no attacks.

Katashi had a feeling he knew why; and he wasn't sure how that felt to him.

He closed his eyes and whispered, "This isn't going well at all."

"The Tsuchikage might still make it," One of the medics whispered, "It looks bad now but . . ."

Katashi was surprised, he said "That's not what I meant."

"Well what did you mean?" The medic asked.

Katashi shook his head, "They know they hurt him bad, at the very least a Hishu assassination squad would be coming to finish him off."

"Isn't that why you're here?" The medic asked.

"Of course it is; the point is I don't need to be. They're not coming."

The medic smiled, "That's good."

Katashi wanted to punch the man; in fact he almost did.

"Don't you get it? Nobody's coming, they're not going to attack us."

"How is that bad?" The medic demanded.

It was bad because the confusion of an attack would have been an ideal time to kill the Tsuchikage, unfortunately with no attack oncoming Katashi knew the enemy was . . .

"They're retreating in the dark. We should be hitting them now, _hard_, and we're not." Katashi lied just to shut the medic up.

"Don't . . . be so sure." Juukei Toshiie said, emerging from the medical tent leaning on his sword. "Round up the boys . . . Katashi. Hit the bastards hard . . . their tail may be . . . between their legs . . . but I want it amputated . . . to boot."

"As you command, Tsuchikage-sama." Katashi said, bowing low.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **The war is having its ups and downs, eh? Well this update might not be as epic as you all were hoping for, but at nearly four thousand words it is at least pretty long. Enjoy!


	64. Burning Ash

**Chapter Sixty-Two**

It was night time in the forest as the six Shinobi crept carefully through the trees, the sounds of crickets thick in the air almost like background music.

"So what do you think we're going to find?" Yomiko asked in a whisper.

"A major butt kicking if you don't keep quiet?" Nao whispered back. She hit him . . . quietly.

"We're not expecting heavy resistance, or we'd have taken more shinobi." Shikamaru-sensei said, "All the same we do expect that at least one of the Five will show up to defend the shrine. If it's Kotaro just remember that he won't be hurt by anything you do, and he won't be moved by anything you say so just defeat him as quickly and thoroughly as you can."

Yomiko thought to herself that fighting Kotaro might be hard, killing or at least apparently killing him would be even harder; especially for Naomasa who practically never killed anyway.

He might actually be a liability, she realized. The majority of the work would therefore have to be done by her and Shikamaru-sensei, the two not afraid of killing. They and the second team would hit the shrine and try to secure it before damage could be done to it, in Waves all the shrines had been burned, many with people-probably test subjects-still inside, maybe even alive when the fires were set.

"Shikamaru-sensei, even if we win this war there could be hundreds of these places set up all over." Nao whispered suddenly; it seemed he'd been thinking along the same lines as Yomiko had been, he said, "How can we possibly find them all and destroy them all?"

"We won't have to find them, if we can secure the Empire we should be able to shut them all down from the seat of government; once we're stable Anbu can go out and find any that might not have been in the books." Shikamaru said.

"What if none of them are in the books?" Nao asked.

"They probably won't be in actual books, but so long as we've got a Yamanaka in our ranks we can 'read' if you will, any high ranking personal we capture; some of them are bound to know of some locations and that'll lead us to others. For now, focus on the task at hand."

Yomiko nodded. That was good advice.

It could be overwhelming to think of how far they needed to go to really restore order and peace; better to look at the immediate problems, the ones they could and were about to overcome.

"We're almost there," Shikamaru said, "Get ready."

Yomiko nodded and prepared herself.

She could, and she _would _defeat Kotaro if he was there.

And she'd kill him-at least his host, because she understood it'd be doing the guy a favor.

She prepared herself, in her seventeen years of life she'd seen a lot of fights, killed lots of people who might have deserved it or might not have.

But just imagining what she'd see in one of the testing facilities, a place where human beings were treated like _things _rather than living breathing people made her skin crawl.

She felt a sort of jolt, the shadow clone she'd sent ahead had just been destroyed, but with its demise came the knowledge of where the enemy traps were located and how many of them would need to be reset before they would be a threat again.

"Got it," She said and she and Naomasa-who'd likely also had the same experience since they'd both sent a clone ahead-sprinted ahead of their Sensei and their comrades.

Yomiko leapt out of the tree line into a clearing, it was familiar though she herself hadn't been there before.

She let her shuriken fly disabling several traps and cutting at least four trip wires, she hit the ground and drew one of her chakra knives.

She let her wind chakra flow through it, lengthening the blade so that it was as long and strong as a katana but almost totally weightless.

She deflected several kunai that came flying at her from the trees, she saw Naomasa hit the ground near her, he immediately inhaled sharply and spat out a fireball that scorched over the grassy clearing.

It formed a ring of burning grass surrounding a patch that seemed as if it hadn't been affected by the fireball at all.

Shikamaru-sensei arrived then and he leapt right onto the patch of undamaged grass, passing through the Genjutsu because that's exactly what it was.

Yomiko followed him, finding a dark and rather steep shaft leading down into the ground.

_Here we go . . . _she thought, her skin still crawling. All the same it was a really pretty night; too bad it'd be getting bloody in a few more moments.

* * *

Kotaro frowned out the window . . . he didn't remember ever having a window in his room. He remembered having a balcony . . . was that in his room or near it?

Confusing . . .

The window showed him the city, it was beautiful and full of happy people. From mothers and children smiling and going about their daily lives to soldiers keeping the peace and helping in the community; from his vantage point, from his strange unfamiliar window, Kotaro could see it all.

He didn't trust it, but he didn't think about it too much; if he did he sort of started to feel foggy, and he'd come to the conclusion that it was better not to question anything; if something seemed unacceptable he just put it out of his mind.

Which was why he wasn't thinking about Kasumi at all.

Any time he looked at her he had an overwhelming urge to sleep with her; the only problem being that he was pretty sure he didn't really want to. He didn't trust his amorous feelings and he didn't act on them.

Sometimes it was hard though, the voices were strong and it wasn't like Kasumi was ugly or anything. On the contrary she was really pretty, and if he didn't have such a powerful feeling that even sleeping in their bed at the same time as her was somehow inappropriate he'd probably be all over her.

So he didn't think about her when he could avoid it; like his new or perhaps old but forgotten window it didn't really seem right; didn't add up.

But if he considered that at all the voices rebuked him. He'd have trouble remembering things and only through the strongest of will power could he even remember that he'd forgotten things, and it felt strange because he felt like he hadn't remembered anything like this in the past . . .

Since she seemed to be of the same mind were spending the night in shifts; Kotaro didn't know if they did that often or even how long they'd been together, but Kasumi was going to sleep in the bed first, then in a few hours she was supposed to wake up and Kotaro would take her place; she'd presumably look out the window like he was doing or spend some time with her thoughts as he was trying not to do.

Truthfully it'd been his turn to sleep a while ago, but Kasumi was clearly not in the best of health; she was very weak and she consistently complained of chest pains . . . or she'd complained once, Kotaro couldn't remember.

In any event he'd decided to let her sleep until her body woke itself up, rather than bothering her just because he felt a little drowsy.

Besides, according to his window it was only dusk, he'd have all night to sleep.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a banging sound. There was a knock on the door, and then it was opened before he could invite or dismiss the visitor.

Few people would intrude on him like that-or at least he remembered few people who were allowed to-the Emperor, the Shogun, or his father . . . why his father? Because he was his father? No, because he was a general of the army and a highly decorated Sound shinobi-no, no he wasn't . . . but then of course he was, what else would he be? When had Kotaro seen him last? He recalled his father dressed in Noble's robes . . . how long ago had that been?

Lord Kabuto entered, smiling at Kotaro, he said "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, a deep meditation perhaps? It seems some of our people have come into crisis."

Kotaro frowned, "What do you mean, my lord?"

"Five of our shrines are being attacked by terrorists, it's a clear provocation; they want to lure out all five of you." Kabuto said, "I'm here to send you to your destination to save the research material if you can, or buy the scientists time to destroy everything and kill themselves if you cannot."

"Kill themselves?" Kotaro blinked.

"It's a sacrifice they're all prepared to make; don't fear for them." Lord Kabuto said reassuringly, "Go ahead to the channeling chamber, I'll wake your wife."

"She's not my wife." Kotaro said automatically without any thought.

It was a stupid thing to say, his _own _voice told him that.

It'd just slipped out . . .

"Well it's true you two haven't consummated your union yet so I suppose technically-"

"How would you know what we have or have not done?" Kasumi asked suddenly, sitting up in bed, "Lord Kabuto, you're not watching us are you? Because I would be too embarrassed to sneeze if I knew your lordship had his eye on me . . ."

She sounded sheepish, almost flirtatious and the fact that Kotaro didn't feel remotely jealous told him that the odds were pretty good that he was right; his relationship with Kasumi might not be real at all; neither of them really wanted the other . . . so why were they together?

What did Kabuto hope to achieve?

What did the Emperor?

Kabuto folded his arms and said, "Well we monitor you for security purposes, though I assure you we'd never dream of looking in on you during an intimate moment; we'd cover our ears and look the other way for that."

Kotaro's eyes narrowed; there it was.

The trap, Kabuto was either telling the truth-and Kotaro wasn't sure why he wouldn't, what was he some paranoid-_shut up! _Kotaro thought sharply.

Kabuto was baiting him; if he slept with Kasumi he' d be alone with his thoughts; if Kotaro were someone of weaker will he might have considered it a win-win but Kotaro was smarter than that.

But why not_? It really _is _a win-win situation, I'd get to think unhindered and_-_Stop it! _Kotaro thought sharply again.

He smiled at Kabuto and shook his head, "Maybe we'd better just go about our mission. Kasumi, are you well enough?"

"Yes . . . I suppose . . ." Kasumi said hesitantly.

"Take a moment to collect yourself, Kasumi, but only a moment; our shrines are in grave danger." Kabuto said.

Kasumi nodded and Kotaro headed for the door after Kabuto but he felt Kasumi's hand on his shoulder.

He turned and looked at her, she frowned and said, "Kotaro-kun, why didn't you wake me up?"

"If you were awake why didn't you say anything?" Kotaro asked.

"The knocking woke me up, but it's way past time-" Kasumi was saying but Kotaro didn't believe her, she'd been far too collected to have just barely woken up.

"We have a mission right now, people could be dying." Kotaro said, "We can discuss that later."

"But . . . I might not remember later." Kasumi said.

"Then I guess it won't bother you." Kotaro shrugged.

Kasumi smiled weakly and whispered, "I'll try not to hurt anyone you might know."

"Why would I know anyone we might fight?" Kotaro raised an eyebrow.

Kasumi shrugged, "I just . . . feel like you would."

* * *

Yomiko slashed the large wooden door with her wind blade, slicing cleanly through any lock.

Nao kicked it open and Shikamaru-sensei said, "Hurry up!"

Yomiko didn't know what she'd see when she passed through the door, Shikamaru-sensei had used his shadow to snare several individuals inside.

She leapt through the door and Naomasa was with her. They saw many scientists ensnared by Shikamaru's shadow, as well as two monstrosities fighting against the control.

Probably why Shikamaru-sensei had sounded so strained.

Yomiko rushed in and stabbed one of the cursed beings, Naomasa kicked the other in the head, knocking it back as Shikamaru-sensei's shadow withdrew.

"Stand down and-" Naomasa was saying when suddenly the door to one of the cells broke open with a crack, a swarm of sand swept through the lab entrapping most of the scientists.

"No!" Nao shouted as Yukio emerged from his prison and laughed.

"Sand Coffin!"

The scientists were slaughtered, but Nao and Yomiko were spared.

Their backup bust into the room and Yukio went to work, striking left and right with sand blades; his host body hadn't been equipped and he had no weapons but the sand must have been stored somewhere in the lab and it'd reacted when he called it.

"Lets see . . . what do I do with all of you . . ." Yukio smirked.

Yomiko rushed forward and threw a pair of shuriken, using wind chakra to make them sharper and deadlier.

Yukio caught them with sand tendril stained red with the blood of one of the scientists.

"Why fight a pointless fight? I've already won." Yukio sneered.

'We didn't need the scientists, just the information,' Yomiko thought, 'if we can keep him from thinking to destroy it he hasn't won anything!'

"Lead him out, we need room to maneuver!" Yomiko shouted.

"Right, right, run through the underground shaft full of dirt!" Naomasa hissed.

Okay . . . so maybe they wouldn't be luring Yukio out any time soon.

Shikamaru-sensei could trap Yukio in his shadow but because of Yukio's sand he could attack without needing to move his body.

Yomiko rushed in, her knives ready to strike and end Yukio's life quickly but he wrapped a sand tentacle around her ankle, stopping her charge.

Yukio smirked at her, "You look familiar . . . have we met? Oh well, last time that'll happen I guess." He said as the sand began to cover her entire leg.

It was working its way up her waist, Yomiko began to panic but Yukio's attention wasn't on her, Nao and one of the other Jounin, a bespectacled woman named Shiho who clearly didn't have much martial ability, she'd probably been brought along to decipher any information they might find.

Not that Yomiko didn't appreciate the effort the older woman was putting forth on her behalf, she really did.

She appreciated the fact that Yukio wasn't watching her even more.

She rapidly performed the hand seals for one of her father's favored Jutsus.

"Everyone get back!" Shikamaru-sensei shouted, he knew the Jutsu.

Yukio laughed, thinking the enemy was beaten back.

But the ash Yomiko expelled from her mouth shut him up, he looked to her seeing that she was the source of it.

There was confusion at first, but then realization or perhaps just nervousness came over his face.

He raised his hand and shouted, "Sand Coff-"

But he couldn't speak faster than Yomiko could click her teeth together, setting off the fire that ignited the ash cloud in a rather well contained-Yomiko thought-explosion. She felt the sand tighten on her leg and hoped that blowing Yukio away would stop the Jutsu before she suffered permanent or powers forbid life threatening damage.

The blast consumed Yukio but Yomiko felt the sand coffin crushing her leg.

But just as she was forced to scream in pain the pain disappeared, the sand fell away and she fell to her knees panting.

Nao and Shikamaru-sensei were on either side of her helping her up, but her leg hurt a lot.

Still, she could move it and she could probably put weight on it; she leaned against Naomasa and said, "Is he dead?"

"Well he's not . . . but he's out of the fight for now." Shikamaru said. "Shiho, get to work; fast!"

"Yes sir!" Shiho said, saluting sharply and then rushing to work.

Shikamaru gave Yomiko a grin, "I was worried at first, but you controlled the size of the explosion really well."

Yomiko smiled, "Come on Sensei, I'd never have risked the research data."

"Not to sound too mushy or anything, but if I had to choose between the life of either of you and research data I'd choose my comrades every time." Shikamaru said, "I was just worried that in a confined space like this you'd kill all of us; I object quite strongly to being killed." Shikamaru said.

He gave her a pat on the shoulder and went to help Shiho and her team gather up research material, Yomiko leaned against Naomasa and smirked, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Sure," Nao said, "you'll have to teach me that one some day."

Yomiko smiled; now _she _had an awesome Jutsu to teach Nao, and he'd fall for her just as he'd fallen for Tomoko and Hitomi before her.

"Can you stand?" He asked her.

"Oh sure." Yomiko said even though she wasn't sure; she wanted to seem as awesome as Hitomi, wanted him to think she was all kinds of powerful.

She tried to stand and her legs buckled under her, her injured leg hurt pretty badly.

She stubbornly tried to stand but she fell again, Nao said, "Don't worry about it, I'll help you out of the tunnel and we'll get you a medic."

She smirked and said, "Yeah alright, I guess." She tried to sound petulant, like she really didn't want his help, but she had to keep her face hidden because she was grinning from ear to ear.

_Seems I won today in more than just one way. _Yomiko thought.

* * *

Yukio gasped and came back; he didn't sit up he stayed very still.

That girl . . . she'd taken his host out in a single attack and she was rather cute to boot . . . he was pretty sure he knew her.

He hesitated, what he was considering doing was insane . . . would the Emperor know what he was doing?

He didn't have to risk it . . . but he wanted to.

He closed his eyes and went back; not to the shrine though he was going to be nearby.

He instead recalled that he had a free host floating around in the world. He took a bit of finding, but once he'd found him . . .

He opened his eyes, he was in a dark corner of a bar.

He got up and rushed out, he could see he was in the city of Waves.

Yukio didn't have to ask too many questions to find out which direction the Konoha shinobi had set off in, and though the ninja were skilled in covering their tricks once he knew where to look he found their hidden trail quickly; luckily they were moving too fast to be really stealthy.

He set off after them, he wanted one more chance to see that girl.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	65. Running in the Dark

**Chapter Sixty-Three**

Toshiie lay on the cot in the medical tent; wishing he could have been a part of the route no doubt going on at that very moment.

But he also considered . . . that girl on the battlefield before, the one with the shorn head . . . he had tried to kill her and he'd failed.

It wasn't that she was skilled, she should have been an easy mark but his body just wouldn't act on his desire to kill her.

The Tsuchikage was troubled by this. It implied that he was not in control of his actions, and that angered him, he didn't like feeling helpless and he rarely ever felt that way.

He wanted to get up and go to battle right then just to prove that he wasn't weak and that he could kill whomever he chose.

But he wasn't an idiot; he knew the best thing would be to trust in his ninja and let them get the job done; sometimes a leader had to have faith in their subordinates. He was lucky to have men he could trust.

* * *

Katashi's mind should have been moving a mile a minute; he needed something.

A plan? Heck he'd settle for an idea.

At the moment all he could think of was how glad he was that Toshiie didn't seem to think he was a traitor. There was also the very real realization that he needed to go along with the madness, the wrongdoing if he wanted to survive.

It was a sick feeling, helping people he considered evil to do things he considered wrong because the alternative was death.

Not that he wanted Lightning to win the war, he wanted Earth to keep their power; he just didn't much care for their management.

_We're almost upon them . . . time to work. _Katashi thought.

He leapt from one tree to another, he could hear the sound of thousands of feet marching.

He leapt down from his current tree in the dead of night those sounds were a death sentence to the soldiers; his teams knew to eliminate any ninja rearguard in silence then zero in on the retreating soldiers and deliver maximum devastation.

He hit the ground and realized how lucky he was when he heard another of his men scream as he fell _into _the darkness.

"Hattori . . ." Katashi grumbled, forming a ring of stalagmites around himself.

The expected shadowy figure tried to attack him and he let the earthen spikes collapse on the man-or woman, he couldn't tell it was too dark.

The skilled ninja fell back into its shadow but it took the business end of a stalagmite with it, with any luck that guy wouldn't be causing any more trouble.

Katashi moved through the darkness. Even though there was a moon in the sky the trees obscured it, still Katashi noticed it get darker when the clouds moved in to cover what moon they _could_ see.

The lightning strikes began to illuminate the woods, along with a couple fireballs.

It was the Cloud ninja's fault, they were removing the advantage of darkness. In flashes the soldiers could see the shinobi and they fired.

Explosive rounds of course, Katashi wasn't surprised. He was half tempted to order a retreat and hope the enemy could be convinced to follow them back to camp.

But then a lot of Earth soldiers would die just so he could kill Toshiie.

He considered it for several long seconds actually; but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it.

The battle was on again, this time the Earth shinobi had no soldiers to support them, no Sound allies; it was just themselves against their mortal foes.

This would be a test, a challenge to prove that the Stone ninja had what it took to win by themselves without Sound.

But it would also weaken both them and Cloud while the zealots stood back and watched; which was just what they'd done in the last war. They'd let tens of thousands die assaulting Konoha only to arrive at the last minute and conquer the survivors of both sides.

And yet nobody saw the evil behind them, nobody seemed to understand or want to believe what Katashi knew for a fact; that the Emperor needed to be stopped.

Those who did were killed, and Katashi didn't want to join their ranks.

So he'd fight for Earth, and for Stone; he'd fight alongside the armies of the Emperor and alongside his sister's killer not because he believed in their cause or because he hated his enemy.

He'd do it because he wanted to live, because he was afraid of dying.

There were worse reasons to fight, he felt, as he clashed blades with a Cloud shinobi whom, he noted with a smirk, had part of a stalagmite stabbed through his left shoulder.

_Couldn't get enough, huh? _The Iwagakure Jounin thought as he did his damnedest to finish the man off.

But this fight was second priority, there were lots of ninja to handle the rear guard; he needed to get past and hit the retreating soldiers.

Easy kills.

* * *

Thunder clashed and bolts of lightning lit up the night as the soldiers retreated.

Tomoko could barely believe it; she knew the enemy would probably attack in the night but it was just the Stone shinobi attacking; the Sound forces could be anywhere.

It was scary but also sort of exhilarating; Tomoko felt sort of like this was an opportunity to redeem herself.

A chance not to be afraid; she'd let Kimiko-san down but these soldiers under her protection would make it to safety even if it cost her life; she'd see to that.

At a time like this she felt helpless for not being as versed in the lightning techniques as the rest of the Cloud ninja, the flashes of light appearing and disappearing were doing a fine job of helping the rearguard throw the enemy off balance.

The Lightning soldiers retreated, with a few squads of samurai staying behind to help the rearguard which was otherwise entirely shinobi.

Tomoko wasn't part of it; neither were Yuu or Chiwa. The three of them were to guard the army as it retreated and help make sure that nothing unwanted happened.

Like their slaughter by the sound zealots that Tomoko was certain had to be in waiting somewhere.

She wouldn't let them down; even if there were no enemy ninja waiting for them further down the road she'd stay on high alert until every single soldier was safely back in the village hidden in clouds.

She kept one eye on the soldiers and another on the woods around them; she wouldn't let anyone catch her off guard, she wouldn't fail again.

She glanced at Yuu, seeing him would make her feel a little better; a little steadier.

But . . . where the heck was he?

* * *

Yuu should have been doing something pretty similar to Tomoko but he wasn't.

He'd pay for it later, but at the moment all he wanted was to stay and fight. As the army retreated he remained behind.

The enemy shinobi force wasn't too large. They'd probably expected to run into a disorganized route or maybe a couple of squads on rearguard, the removal of which would leave the entire army open to attack.

They'd been wrong; the Hattori clan-all of it-had been the rearguard and when they'd seen enemies approaching in the darkness a few samurai platoons were arranged and given explosive rounds to really make sure the enemy ninja got a little something to remember them by.

And Tetsuo himself had ordered Yuu to take "his team" and guard the retreating army.

Well Yuu decided he approved of Tomoko being kept out of the fighting; he didn't want to lose anyone else.

But he didn't approve of himself being kept out of it; and he wouldn't be.

It was insane, a part of him recognized that; but the larger part just wasn't thinking about that.

The larger part of him just wanted the enemy to pay for what they'd done.

His mind told him that people died in war, it was a risk they all took. It told him that getting personal about it was not only wrong, it was insane.

That ignoring a direct order not to be part of the rearguard was insane.

So the way Yuu figured; he was pretty much a lunatic and so he was pretty sure his insane brain would find some good and creative way to justify everything he was doing.

Silly, even childish if he thought about it; but he wasn't going to do that.

Kimiko-sensei was dead, Takumi was dead, Masaru was dead, Kasumi was a traitor . . .

He hated the war; it was taking everything from him. Again he recognized that others lost things too, lost people too, that was what wars did . . . but he didn't care about those people right then, he just cared about himself and what _he'd _lost, who _he'd _lost.

And he was going to make as many people pay as he could; even though it meant that someone out there would lose someone too.

A little kid might lost their mother or father because of what he was going to do. An innocent man or woman could lose their spouse because Yuu wanted revenge on someone who just happened to wear the same uniform as the man he really wanted to kill.

He knew all these things, and he knew a Jounin would know better.

_Well? Aren't you a Jounin?_ He could practically hear Kimiko-sensei's voice in his head, _Is ignoring what I taught you the best way to honor my memory?_

Yuu stopped moving; stopped heading for the fight.

He lowered his gaze, maybe he really was crazy.

He was mad, he was furious and he wanted to kill everyone wearing a Stone forehead protector.

But he was ashamed too; ashamed because he didn't know what to think or what to do.

He wasn't sure what he wanted . . . he wanted the people who'd killed Takumi and Kimiko to pay for it; but he couldn't hold an entire nation's military responsible, could he?

_Why not? _Kasumi's voice wondered in his head, _If people hurt you then you need to hurt them back, don't you?_

Yuu laughed weakly, _That tares it, _he thought and thankfully in his own voice, _I've lost it._

"What are you doing?" Tetsuo demanded, grabbing him and shoving him back, "We're retreating, not charging! Move!"

"It's over?" Yuu gawked.

"Yeah, now move!" Tetsuo ordered him

Yuu's eyes narrowed; "Where's everyone else?"

"They're coming."

"Since when do you lead the way in a retreat, Hattori-senpai?"

Tetsuo's eyes narrowed.

"Don't be mad." He said, "I just didn't want you killing yourself."

"Tomoko?" Yuu demanded.

"As if," Chiwa said as she dismissed her Transformation Jutsu, "She's as zoned out as you are; she didn't even notice when you snuck off; heck I don't think she noticed when I did either."

"Yeah right." Tomoko scoffed, jumping down from a treetop; "Nice trick with the Tetsuo thing, too bad you don't know enough to make it effective."

"Yeah, I guess." Chiwa frowned, "Let's get back before the real one kills us."

"We don't do that in Cloud." Yuu whispered.

"I know, you charge when you're supposed to retreat. It's all very heroic and in story books it's totally cool. But in real life, you know where people like me don't want to die, it's kind of important to _not_ do stupid things like that. I didn't get to know Tosa-san well but I think she'd disapprove, and your Samurai friend probably would have too."

Yuu nodded, "I was thinking something along those lines myself. That wasn't some Jutsu of yours too was it?" He asked; he knew what Tomoko was capable of and whispering straight into his brain wasn't something she could do.

But he knew close to nothing about Chiwa.

"No," The short woman said, "I think that's just your common sense getting back from his vacation."

Tomoko put her hand on his shoulder, "Yuu, I know you want revenge but now's not the time. You think I'm not mad too? But those soldiers back there, they're counting on us to keep them safe; I . . . I'm not going to fail any more people, I won't let comrades die anymore."

"Comrades are always going to die," Yuu said, "Someday I'm going to die, Tomoko, then what?"

Tomoko just pulled his arm and said, "Doesn't have to happen tonight, Yuu."

Yuu closed his eyes for a moment and heard Chiwa say, "At this point even if you went there and saved their butts somehow, even if they were being slaughtered you'd be strung up right after for disobeying orders. I heard that high ranking ninja tell you to help protect the army, and you know as well as I do that that mostly means the Daimyo."

"There are other ninja there, over a hundred other ninja there!" Yuu snapped.

Tomoko glared at him, "Yeah and you're supposed to be one of them! We're going back and we're going to retreat just like everyone else. I don't like it but it has to happen."

"Why?" Yuu demanded, "Why are we retreating? We should have pressed the attack, we should have killed them all! If the Raikage had any brains at all-"

"Then survive so you can become Raikage someday, Yuu! I don't know, okay, but if you die-" Tomoko's eyes grew hard and she whispered harshly, "If you died I'd betray the whole village, _you _are the only important person to me in the whole Village Hidden in Clouds! You're the one person I don't want to disappoint or hurt but so help me I'll beat the ever-loving tar out of you if you don't turn around and march back _now_!"

"Too rough?" Chiwa suggested.

Tomoko ignored her, her eyes her focus was entirely on Yuu. She said, "Please, Yuu. You're all I have right now. I want revenge too but tonight isn't the night."

Yuu nodded, he turned around slowly.

Chiwa gave him an "encouraging" push, the sort a prison guard gave a prisoner, and said, "Let's get back before anyone sees us!"

"In this dark? Nobody'd ever notice us." Tomoko said.

"Don't be so sure." Yuu said and the wall of stalagmites burst out of the ground.

A cold voice whispered in the dark, "You're not the main army at all, are you? What a shame."

Yuu went into a fighting posture, but the enemy shinobi laughed. "I guess it's true; you can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need."

"You need to die?" Yuu scoffed.

"You want revenge for your dead comrades and so do I. Normally this'd be the part where I kill you three but you see in this rare instance the man who killed your comrades . . . and my sister, just happens to be the same person. I'm thinking we might just be able to help each other, so . . . what do you say we work something out, hmm?"

* * *

Yukio hadn't had _too much _trouble finding the enemy army, but getting into their camp . . . that was going to take some doing.

But he wasn't thinking of the risks, he had been performing this very against the rules exercise for a long while now and if he wanted to say anything more than a sentence to this girl he needed to move fast.

Such as it was knowing the enemy location was his saving grace; it'd keep him from having his teeth knocked out by the Emperor and replaced with a shark's jaw or something.

So he moved fast, he saw a soldier on watch and jumped the man; stealing his uniform but leaving him unconscious rather than killing him.

If he was caught not killing the guard would go a ways towards pretending he was defecting or something.

He took the other man's clothes and dressed himself like a soldier of Lightning, then rushed into the camp.

"Hold, what's the password?" One of the other soldiers demanded.

"I did yer' sister, now out'a the way dude!" Yukio-disguised as a Fire soldier said, trying to hide his face, not wanting to use chakra to transform since it'd just be a big red light to any sensors.

It was all he could do to keep the fact that he was projecting from registering on their maps, and hopefully it really wasn't and they weren't just waiting for the right moment to get him.

But some things were worth risking, and a shred of memory these days was worth it to Yukio.

He barely remembered Kyu and Tyoko, his two best friends at some point-at least he was pretty sure they were-but this girl's face was familiar to him and it meant something.

And she'd taken him down, that alone was worth an introduction.

It was stupid but for Yukio he'd come so far the mere though of not doing it seemed the less reasonable option.

He got through the guards hearing one of the guards say, "Captain seems a little out of it; sounded different too."

"Yeah, if he hadn't 'a known the password I'd never have let him through, I don't care if he _is _a captain."

Yukio couldn't help but laugh to himself. The omens were good tonight, he'd had a bout of insane luck first in getting into the camp, second in guessing the password, and best of all the guard he'd taken out was an officer, nobody would bother him.

It was going to be a good night, karma was finally smiling down on him.

Or, more likely, it as smiling down on his host body who would be totally abandoned to die if anything went wrong. Yukio had never done anything to make the cosmic forces of the universe happy, after all.

Though he did think everything had been far _too _easy . . . he was a decent enough tracker but really it was like the Konoha army hadn't hidden its trail at all, and then those soldiers had just let him go even though they were by a fire and could have seen his face clearly, would know he wasn't familiar and as an officer that would have made thigns even worse because those men would have memorized the faces of most of the officers in their detatchment so . . .

So much good luck . . . too much good luck.

But he'd come too far to give up now; he was so close.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	66. No Buzz

**Chapter Sixty-Four**

Shikamaru gave Sakura a firm pat on the shoulder, "I don't know how you did it but . . ." There was nothing else to say, he was far too impressed.

Yukio stood before him-well, was held by two Jounin before him-unconscious and powerless.

"We spotted this guy trying to follow our trail not too long ago; he was in a rush so it wasn't too hard to ensare him, Kurenai did the actual Jutsu," Sakura admitted, "He thinks he's . . . what was it?"

"Thinks he's snuck into the camp," Kurenai said, "He's not questioning anything which means he's either an idiot or he's just used to having his reality distorted . . . I expect it's both. It does confirm that Orochimaru doesn't know we sent our soldiers with the Wind army; or at least that the Five don't know."

"And you're sure he's alone? That the others aren't with him?" Shikamaru asked.

"I don't know; best thing to do would be to interrogate him but Ino's not back yet." Sakura said.

"I thought her team was back, they had research materials and everything." Shikamaru said, "I looked over some of those pages myself, dark stuff but . . ." He stopped himself from calling it brilliant because mostly it was sick.

But . . . a brilliant sort of sick.

Sakura shrugged, "Ino wasn't with them when they got back; she and a couple others stayed behind to keep searching the place, they said they'd catch up to us."

Shikamaru didn't like that. He said, "Sakura, do me a favor and have Chouji go get Ino; I don't care _what _she might find, I don't want anyone left behind when we move out. Kurenai, since this is your Genjutsu is there anything you can get out of Yukio before he realizes what's going on and abandons the body?"

"Probably but I'll need Yomiko's help."

"Because . . ." Shikamaru asked.

"Because she's the reason Yukio came to this camp, if I try to use an illusionary version of her he might figure out something's up, it's easier to just let her play herself; she's talented in Genjutsu so she'll be an asset at keeping him entrapped too."

"Alright," Shikamaru nodded, "I'll send her here as fast as I can, hopefully the medics are done with her leg. I'll ask Lee to stand guard too."

"I don't think that's necessary."

"Yomiko killed Ryu's other host today and she did it pretty easily; that's probably why he wants to see her; even in a Genjutsu he can be a danger to her and I don't like losing students." Shikamaru said and Kurenai nodded, accepting the decision.

Shikamaru headed off to find Yomiko then speak to Naruto; if he saw him he'd tell Nao to stand guard too, couldn't be too careful when a member of the Sound Five was involved.

* * *

Naomasa sat on a log at the edge of the camp thinking to himself.

Yomiko had just . . . just taken down Yukio, she'd _ended _him with a single Jutsu.

And he'd sort of stood there like an idiot.

How would he rescue Kotaro or help Shikamaru-sensei and Naruto-sama take back Konoha?

Furthermore he wondered . . . what then? One thing he knew from being inside the shrine was that it was old; it'd existed before they lost Konoha which meant that between however many existed before and however many were built while they hid.

However many were being built.

What had Naruto-sama been doing? Was it enough?

What the hell had Naomasa been doing for the last four years?

He'd been training, sure . . . but not as intensely as the Five must have.

What had Naruto-sama been doing and why had they waited? What preparations had been made?

He had to know . . . but could he even approach the Hokage?

He leapt down from the log on which he'd sat and headed back into the camp without watching his way and nearly plowed into his sensei.

Shikamaru said, "You're needed."

Nao guessed that Shikamaru-sensei was as good a person as any to ask about the Hokage's plans; who would know them better after all?

Nao asked, "Sensei, what . . . what are we going to do?"

"Guard Yomiko while she and her mother interrogate Yukio."

Nao stared at Shikamaru, "I . . . I beg your pardon?"

"Well you asked." Shikamaru shrugged, "Come on, they're already at it but I don't want to risk anything happening. Let's go."

Nao frowned, he said, "Sensei . . . I mean . . . this war. How are we going to win? I mean . . . against this kind of _evil _what can we do?"

"Exactly what we're doing; fight it." Shikamaru said.

"A bit more . . . _how _do we fight it?" Naomasa asked as he followed the older ninja.

Shikamaru eyed him as they walked and asked, "Losing heart?"

Naomasa shrugged, "What can we do to them? How can we stop them? Why did we wait? I spent four years on that damn island and . . . honestly I didn't even realize the time passing. I didn't realize how badly things were changing, did you? Did the Hokage? I mean . . . what were we thinking letting the enemy get this strong?"

"We were getting strong again ourselves." Shikamaru said.

"Strong enough?" Nao whispered.

"We took Waves in a night, Naomasa." Shikamaru told him, "This won't be easy, I never said it was. But we need to do it because we can and because it's right. Do you want your kids fighting this war in your stead?"

Nao shrugged, "Am I gonna live long enough to have any?"

"I dunno." Shikamaru shrugged. "But if you did would you want them to fight a war you could have fought in their place? If I have my way Sumiko-chan will never fight in a real war, she'll never have to do the things her mother and I have had to do just to survive. I know wars will be fought in the future, I know that sometimes it's the only option . . . but the more thoroughly we win the longer the next war will take to start."

"Is that why this one took so long to begin again?" Naomasa asked, "Because we were beaten too thoroughly?"

"No. This war didn't end when we lost Konoha; you may not realize it but battles were still being fought. Hitomi was fighting a lot of them."

"Then why wasn't I out there with her instead of living it up on our little hideaway island? Why weren't we all?" Naomasa asked.

Shikamaru sighed, he said, "Naomasa . . . we're going to win this war or die trying, does that make you feel better? Of course not. The truth is we're fighting because we don't have any other options, we're fighting because we have to and we're going to win because we have to win. Why did we wait? Because we couldn't win four years ago . . . we'll be lucky to win now."

Naomasa frowned. He whispered, "What are we going to do?"

"Win." Shikamaru said, "As difficult, as impossible, as crazy as it may seem . . . we have to win. We have to fight and win and blah, blah, blah, the truth is I don't know what Naruto did but it has to have been worth it. If it isn't . . . if it wasn't . . . I'm going to kick his ass."

"Can you do that?" Nao asked.

"Hell if I know." Shikamaru said.

* * *

Yukio felt an almost incessant pull in his head demanding he return, but he had to see this girl.

Yomiko was standing in her tent waiting for him, though she'd taken some finding.

He was tempted to kill her, but he needed answers instead.

She turned to face him and said, "What is it captain?"

Yukio frowned.

He really had no idea.

He folded his arms and considered, but the buzz in his brain was getting stronger.

Yukio folded his arms and said, "Why are you with these people? Why aren't you fighting for the Kamikage?"

"Because he's evil, next question?" Yomiko scoffed.

Yukio frowned, "If he's evil why am I fighting for him?"

"Because you're evil . . . probably." Yomiko said, her eyes changing a bit, looking a little softer. She said, "Why don't you help the good guys?"

"Why do you think you're the good guys? We were at peace! You came here to fight!"

"We came to get our homes back, yours too! You're from Sunagakure, you're a sand shinobi!"

"Not anymore." Yukio realized as he said it. He frowned and said, "You have power, why not use it to help the Emperor instead of fighting him? If all the strong people in the world worked together there'd never be wars."

"But what about the people who aren't strong?" Yomiko asked.

"Who cares?" Yukio asked her, "You're not one of them."

"What if I were?"

"Then I would have killed you and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"But since I killed you doesn't that make me stronger than you?"

"No, I was unprepared." Yukio said, "On an even field I'd kill you and your whole team."

"On an even field you wouldn't have extra lives to waste." Yomiko countered and Yukio shrugged.

"Guess not." He admitted, "But I'm just as deadly in person; maybe more so because some of my augmentations don't carry over to hosts. You wouldn't want to fight me in person."

"I don't want to fight you period, but we do what we have to." Yomiko told him. "So why are you seeking me out if it isn't for revenge? You don't honestly think you'll get me to change sides do you?"

Yukio felt foolish. Still he said, "I . . . we know each other."

"Everyone knows about the Five . . . and I guess one of the last Sarutobi would rank pretty high in your bingo book." Yomiko shrugged.

"No, no . . . I mean personally. We know each other personally . . . were we friends?"

"Don't think so," she said, her red eyes fixed on him. "I don't associate with murderers."

"I'm _not _a murderer!" Yukio snapped, "I'm a hero!"

"Do you-" Yomiko's eyes went wide, she looked like she'd just choked, "Do you _believe _that?"

Yukio didn't. Did he? He didn't _know _but he couldn't think, the buzz wasn't stopping.

He looked away and said, "I had to see you because . . . you know me!"

Most people might have scoffed or said something snide but Yomiko just frowned and asked, "Do you not?"

"No!" He shouted, then he spoke softer least someone hear him. He said, "You're Yomiko. You're Yomiko and I know you! And I know I'm Yukio of the Sound Five, I know _that _but who _is _Yukio? I have memories that might not be memories and once I go back they'll punish me for coming here, maybe . . . I think they make me forget things so this might all be a waste of time-"

"No, no it isn't," Yomiko said firmly, "You can tell me more and we can find a way to help you guys."

"I don't want your help, you're the enemy!" Yukio protested.

"Then why are you here?" Yomiko snapped, "You came for help, I know you and you don't, I remember more about you than you do and I promise I will help you if I can and if it doesn't hurt Konoha's cause. But you need to tell me everything; if they're going to punish you anyway you've got nothing to lose, not even your memory if you're right about that too."

Yukio hesitated, and whispered, "I . . . I did come here for a reason . . . but . . ." He frowned; could he trust her? Really? Maybe he didn't know her at all. Maybe, like she'd said, she just knew _of _him.

He clenched his hands into fists and whispered, "The Emperor will destroy you all, serve him and you don't have to die!"

"I'd rather die than be a slave . . . hell you're on the high end of the totem poll and look at you; you're coming to an enemy for answers because you have no idea what your so-called friends are doing to you. To Orochimaru we're all just slaves and test subjects; he's so insanely selfish that no one else in the world matters to him and that's why we're fighting him."

Yukio frowned and Yomiko continued with something that surprised him; "Do you remember Kyoko?"

"Kyoko . . ." Yukio hesitated, "I knew someone . . . I _know-_no I don't know her anymore . . . she has a secret . . . I think . . . yeah, Kyoko, she was my friend. I kept her secret from the Kamikage."

"What secret?" Yomiko asked.

Yukio scowled, "I didn't tell him I won't tell you."

"Fine . . . fine," Yomiko smiled and he liked seeing her smile . . . it was sort of like they weren't enemies, even though he knew they still were.

He hesitated and said, "Is Kyoko okay?"

"I can't tell you where she is, they might make you hurt her. She's very sad because another of your friends died-"

Names came to him without any effort, it was almost like recalling a memory that wasn't being blocked he just shouted, "Temari-sensei? No . . . no Ryu died, didn't he?" Yukio gasped, how could he have forgotten Ryu's death?

Then it hit him and he snarled, _they_ had made him forget, _they _were taking everything from him and he didn't know how . . . and what did he get from it? Power?

He had that but it was meaningless if he couldn't even remember the fate of a dear friend.

Yomiko nodded slowly. She whispered, "Ryu was killed when we freed Waves."

"Did I . . ." Yukio mumbled, then he remembered, "No, Kyoko did . . . her secret, I kept it and I . . . no, if they made me forget Ryu they might know . . . Kyoko could be . . ." He hesitated and eyed Yomiko suspiciously; could he trust her?

"Yomiko, what were we?"

"What do you mean?" Yomiko asked.

"Were we friends? Did I trust you?" Yukio demanded.

"If we weren't I'd just say we were anyway to trick you . . . so . . . well I think we were sort of friends. We weren't super close, I mean there was that night we-um, never mind!"

"We what?" Yukio demanded, then he started to remember that too. He frowned, "We went on a date didn't we?"

Yomiko looked nervous and she whispered, "It was more like a not-date, I mean we were kids . . . nothing happened."

"Was something supposed to?" Yukio felt confused.

"No, I just wouldn't want my mom to think-look, you can trust me, if what you're going to tell me will help stop the Emperor or help one of my friends I'll die before I betray-"

"Kyoko has a . . . there's something about her if you don't already know, if Kamikage-sama knows now he'll target her, he'll try to take her away from you and do things to her, maybe even turn her against you."

Yomiko frowned, "What is it that'd make him do that?"

"I can't tell you, he might not know and then if you're captured you'd tell him."

"Wouldn't it be enough that you told me there's something? If he captured me and he didn't know he might want to know what that something is!"

"No!" Yukio said a little too harshly, "I have to keep her secret even if I don't understand why . . . I don't understand a lot of things; I wish this war had never started, but it did and I'll fight it to the end even if I don't understand why. I know if we meet on the field of battle I'll try to kill you again, even if I don't understand why I have to do that . . . but . . . I think . . . I think they don't know I'm here, I think they don't know I'm with you now."

"Okay . . ." Yomiko hesitated.

Yukio frowned and whispered, "This host body of mine, keep it with your army, keep it restrained. If I can remember and if I have the chance I'll come back some time and try to help you some more."

"Why?" Yomiko asked. "Why would you help us?"

Yukio smiled, it felt silly but he said, "Because the buzz is gone . . ."

"The what?" Yomiko raised an eyebrow.

"I can't feel them in my head . . . so I don't think they know I'm here, I don't think they realize I'm in this body; they thought it was destroyed, I . . . I remember I wanted to let him go so I told them I lost the host . . . but the connection, once made, can be restored anywhere, so wherever you are I can take to this body and help you if I can."

"This could be a trap, especially if they can read your memories."

Yukio hesitated and he whispered, "They make us forget a lot, I think I can forget this just like I forgot Kyoko's secret at first. I'm not saying they won't know, but they might not be able to stop me."

"They can kill you." Yomiko said.

"Then I'd be free and they'd lose one of their favorite tools." Yukio hesitated and whispered, "This conversation has gone . . . wild. I mean I came here to ask questions and now I'm talking treason. If I had to judge myself I'd choose execution."

"Yeah well I didn't think I'd be doing anything more than interrogating you." Yomiko admitted. "I didn't think things would go this way . . ." Yomiko hesitated and said, "Alright, if what you say is true then shouldn't you get back before they suspect anything?"

Yukio hesitated and said, "I don't know . . . they might get everything from me when I go back, they might be getting everything now . . . they might use me to spy on you guys."

"We'll just have to trust you." Yomiko said, "I'll do anything to end this war, to free the people and restore shinobi to their rightful place. I'd even trust an enemy with a good heart, and I think that's what you are."

Yukio smiled weakly and said, "Then we'll try, I'll do my best to remember this host body and forget why."

Yomiko nodded and Yukio felt like maybe he knew why he'd had to see her.

He really liked her.

* * *

Shikamaru nodded to Lee and Naomasa who both swooped in to restrain Yukio's host body when the poor man reverted to his normal state.

Kurenai folded her arms and Yomiko, emerging from the Genjutsu said, "So what do you think, Sensei?"

"You shouldn't have let him go so soon!" Kurenai said in irritation.

"No, she was right to do so." Shikamaru said.

"You don't even know what was going on in the Genjutsu, Shikamaru." Kurenai said.

"True," Shikamaru shrugged, "but remember that it's up to our Hokage to make the big decisions now Kurenai, not me and not Yomiko so if you think I'm wrong take it up with him. Still we have ourselves one of Orochimaru's test subjects and a great deal of his research; when Ino gets here we'll see if we can figure out the exact nature of this Jutsu that allows the Five to be so immortal."

"But if we break that Jutsu they'll come in person," Yomiko said, "Yukio said that they're stronger in person."

But Kurenai had settled down and she nodded to Shikamaru, "He also said they're probably drugged, if we can force Orochimaru to send them out of the castle we can kill them or capture them and let the drugs ware off; he won't allow that he'll keep them inside instead and if we remove their ability to use projections it's like taking his right hand clean off."

"But this host here is the key to it," Shikamaru said, "Now that we have a living host we can see if we can't backtrack or block the Jutsu."

"You want to experiment on him like Orochimaru did?" Yomiko asked.

"That would be most unacceptable." Lee commented.

"Agreed, and I don't plan to run any experiments, we won't hurt him unless he becomes Yukio and tries to kill us all." Shikamaru said, a plan forming in his mind, though he was curious about what had happened in the Genjutsu that made Yomiko send Yukio away so soon if indeed they'd learned as little as Kurenai said. "Lets get to Naruto-sama and we'll see what we've learned tonight."

"Yukio said he can use the host to come back to us," Yomiko said, "To bring us information."

"Because he brought us such a wealth of knowledge this time," Kurenai said grumpily, "We didn't learn anything."

"I think we learned a lot." Yomiko replied petulantly.

"That's up to the Hokage." Shikamaru said firmly, his stomach starting to hurt again.

_This war's going to kill me without a single enemy having to be anywhere near me. _Shikamaru thought. _All the more reason to end it fast._

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **The next chapter will be the bonus chapter for reaching four hundred reviews, but I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support.


	67. Bad Dreams

**Chapter Sixty-Five**

Hitomi stared into the darkness as she stood on watch.

The Water soldiers were on watch, but Sasuke-senpai had decided he wanted some of his ninja on watch too; and Hitomi had volunteered.

Now she regretted it; she was tired as sin.

"Luckily" Hayato was there to keep her up . . . the jerk.

"So what'll you actually do if there is someone out there?" He asked, "You gonna fight him or report back or what?"

"Why wouldn't I fight him?" Hitomi asked.

"Well if you attack they could lure you into a trap, doesn't it make more sense to raise the alarm?"

"I'd probably do both." Hitomi shrugged.

"You didn't say you'd do both though. See you're obviously very tired, way too tired to stay on watch."

"I don't think one of my ninja needs any sort of advice from you, soldier." A new voice said coldly and Hayato spun around in surprise to see the Mizukage approaching.

Hitomi had known he was coming but hadn't reacted, she'd assumed he'd just pass her by.

"That'd be surgeon actually, and she's not one of _your_ ninja." Hayato commented.

"She's working for Sasuke, that makes her one of his. Since he's one of mine, that makes her one of mine, get back to your part of the camp, _soldier_." The Mizukage growled.

Hitomi hoped Hayato would just do it and not cause any trouble, and surprisingly he did. He just nodded to her and then got up and left; it was amazing.

If she ever found herself on casual speaking terms with Suigetsu-which she doubted-she'd have to ask him how he did that.

She guessed the giant sword probably helped.

"As for you, you seem tired. Maybe you should get some sleep," Suigetsu told her, "I don't want anyone at less than a hundred percent in the morning."

"Sir, Sasuke-senpai-" Hitomi began but Suigetsu scoffed and started to walk away.

"Has less authority than me in my army's personal camp; retire to your tent or kick someone out of theirs, I don't care but if you're still on guard when I come back through this part of the camp . . . well, you just don't want to be here when I come back."

Hitomi nodded and quickly stepped away from the edge of the camp.

She didn't like that at all, she didn't have to be a genius to know she'd just been threatened by the Mizukage.

She needed to tell Sasuke about that, though part of her wanted to chase after the Mizukage and show him that he wasn't threatening some wet behind the ears academy student.

She was pretty sure that was her sleepiness talking; or at least she would think that but being threatened by someone who could more likely than not kill her in ten seconds tended to keep her awake.

She hadn't even been thinking about finding Sasuke-senpai when she ran in to him.

He seemed surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you I think; the Mizukage told me not to keep watch, he also implied that my doing so could cause an incident."

Sasuke nodded, "Understood, get some sleep Hijiri-san."

Hitomi frowned, "Is that it?"

"Why, did you have more?" Sasuke asked.

"Well . . . no . . ." Hitomi admitted.

"Then if you'll excuse me, Mizukage-sama has summoned me to a meeting. We'll discuss anything else that might be on your mind when I get back, good night Hitomi."

"Um . . . yeah." Hitomi frowned.

She wandered to the tent that she and Hara were sharing.

It was a little awkward, Hara was, after all, a changed man, and not in a good way. Hitomi understood that he needed to be guarded even in his sleep-and one of the other Konoha loyalists was doing that in her absence-and she was pretty sure he wouldn't strangle her in her sleep.

Well, pretty sure didn't mean much some days.

_It's just Hara, _she told herself, _you've known him for years._

She entered the tent and the Chuunin on guard seemed surprised by her presence.

"Get some sleep but stay close." She whispered to him, not wanting to disturb the camp, or Hara who was fast asleep.

The Chuunin nodded and he left, Hitomi immediately fell to the ground and tried to sleep.

It didn't happen though, being threatened then having to sleep in close proximity to someone whom she didn't feel entirely safe around-and she hated herself for feeling that way but it was just how she felt-tended to keep her up.

She glanced at Hara, fast asleep, his eyes closed though really she guessed he just had the one eye now.

She hated to think of what they might have done to Miyuki; after all if they had Hara they must have her too; it was the best explanation for why nobody had seen her in the past four years.

Hitomi felt a little sick thinking of Miyuki, where she might be and what the enemy might be doing to her.

She shut her eyes, welcoming the darkness. She willed her body to relax and go to sleep, and slowly it began to happen.

In the old days she might not have been so scared of Hara, or of the Mizukage, or even of what was probably happening to Miyuki because she'd stop that soon enough.

But now she was aware of her mortality and the consequences of death, it worried her because that hadn't occurred often-though it wasn't unprecedented-before Saeki-chan came into the picture.

_Everyone always says a child changes everything, I didn't think that meant 'makes you a coward' _she thought, half ashamed at herself, half outraged.

It was in no small part _because _of Saeki-chan that she needed to fight, win, and return alive.

She needed to rescue Miyuki and help Hara and . . .

And it turned out that sleep wasn't as hard to achieve as she thought it would be.

She had dreams, which didn't used to bother her but on that particular night they did.

She dreamed of Kaoru and Keika, dreamed of the things Keika had taught her only they were warped and frightening.

She dreamed of herself in the village with Keika and Kaoru, living a happy civilian life. She dreamed of watching Saeki grow up in that now destroyed village, and dreamed of other children too.

And through all that pleasantness she could see Hara and Miyuki suffering quietly in the background, being cut into, experimented on, having body parts removed.

And she did nothing to help.

She just lived a happy life in the village that no longer existed with people who were now long dead.

She woke up in the middle of the night to do something suspiciously similar to crying, but Hitomi knew that Jounin didn't cry so she had no idea what it was she was actually doing.

Couldn't be crying though.

She rolled onto her side so that her back faced Hara, who despite having probably gone through all the torments she imagined and worse, slept peacefully.

She just didn't want to see him; knowing he was nearby made it almost possible to pretend that they were just kids again; that Naruto-sensei and Miyuki were on guard duty or something, and that if she looked over her shoulder at him Hara would be whole and happy again.

She didn't fall asleep again, she wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

_I wont fail anyone else again, _she told herself, _I won't let you suffer, Miyuki. I'll find you and free you no matter what it takes._

She wiped away the wet things coming from her eyes which just couldn't be tears, and gave up on trying to sleep again; resolved to just wait quietly until she could talk to Sasuke-senpai about the Mizukage, see what the situation was between them.

That was a problem she could solve quickly, but she wouldn't let it or anything else distract her form her real mission; not again.

Like Sasuke-senpai she needed to restore her family. Unlike him she wouldn't do that by getting married and having kids, she'd do it by finding Miyuki, and helping her and Hara get better, by helping Naruto-sensei retake Konoha and then devoting her life to making sure that he never lost it again.

Because they were her family, she wouldn't abandon them again.

* * *

Yuu listened to Katashi's plan and he didn't like it one bit.

He wasn't insane for revenge, not nearly insane enough to actually listen to an enemy and just trust him.

He hadn't killed the man, that was as far as the young shinobi's trust was going to go for the moment.

Chiwa too was very adamant, "We're not trusting this bozo, are we? The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy, we'll let you go in peace this time buddy but-"

"Don't get me wrong, if you disagree with my terms I'll just kill all three of you." Katashi said.

"Want to try?" Tomoko asked.

"I don't believe in trying; just in succeeding." The Iwagakure Jounin said. "Do we have a deal?"

Yuu frowned and said, "No. But I've got a counteroffer. You want us to follow you into your camp; well that's insane we won't do it; we didn't get to be Jounin by taking unnecessary risks or making idiotic decisions."

"Your current position notwithstanding."

"Any minute either our rearguard is going to come upon us and find you, kill you, all that good stuff, or your guys will come along and do all that to us," Tomoko scoffed, "Your position is just as stupid as ours."

Yuu felt a twinge of remorse for his own rash actions and the added danger they'd placed Tomoko-and he guessed Chiwa too-in, but he continued to speak to Katashi as if he weren't bothered at all by the danger. He said, "We'll set up an ambush on the border, our army will cross it and we'll keep some men behind; if you're genuine get the Tsuchikage alone on the borderline by dusk tomorrow. Go to the abandoned temple on the hill overlooking the mist covered lakes and we'll deal with him accordingly; and make sure you're still in a credible position to become the new Tsuchikage, no one will know you had anything to do with it."

Katashi glared at Yuu, and then he asked, "Who were they to you? The two that died."

"My sensei and my brother." Yuu said, not feeling any strong need to clarify Takumi as his brother-in-law, their bond had been as strong as any true brothers' could have been.

Katashi scoffed, "Didn't know many ninja and samurai were brothers."

"He was a ninja before he became a samurai." Yuu said.

"Explains a bit." Katashi said. His harsh expression did soften though and he said, "Alright kid. On the borderline. But I can't have him there by tomorrow at dusk, give me three days, by then he should be healed enough to travel without a big medical entourage, I'll make something up and get him to follow me to the temple on the hill overlooking the mist-covered-lakes."

"Right," Yuu said, nodding approvingly at the man's repetition of the destination, "You know the place?"

"Can't be many like it. I assume the army will be passing near it anyway?" Katashi said.

_Assume wrong, _Yuu thought but didn't say; no point letting the enemy know where the main army would be, he just shrugged noncommittally.

Katashi nodded and said, "Three days then; be there or the walls of your great city won't save you from my revenge."

Yuu nodded, "Deal." He said, though they didn't shake on it, Yuu felt it best not to make physical contact with this man.

The girls backed away first, Yuu backed off slowly; returning to the main force.

Katashi turned and headed back for his own lines, his attempts to follow the army abandoned it seemed.

"Do you really think we can trust him?" Chiwa asked.

Yuu doubted he could trust Chiwa herself, but nevertheless he felt like giving her the benefit of the doubt, she deserved that much he supposed.

So he answered truthfully, "Not one bit, but if it gets us the Tsuchikage and replaces him with someone who doesn't trust the Emperor I'm all for it." Yuu said.

"You and me both." Tomoko whispered, then she said, "But three days? It won't take us that long to reach the temple on the border."

"No," Yuu admitted, "But it'll probably be that long before Earth ends any force after us, and this gives me a chance to get back to Kumo and tell Kaori . . . just in case this doesn't work."

"It's gonna work." Chiwa said, "I won't mess up, I may be a Chuunin but that's not nothing, I'll make myself useful."

"Good." Yuu said, feeling a bit of affection for Chiwa now.

Tomoko smiled weakly at him and said, "Yuu . . . you can't tell Kaori about _this_, you know that right? I mean . . . she'll come if she thinks she can kill the guy who-"

"I know," Yuu said, "I'll talk to Tetsuo-sama, if we can we'll convince him to tell Kaori that Takumi's killer is already dead. It wont be true yet, but in three days that'll be a different story."

Tomoko gave him a supportive look as they rushed back to the army, "I'll do the best I can, Yuu. I'll help you kill the Tsuchikage, or I'll die trying."

Yuu nodded, though he hadn't quite mentioned . . .

He didn't want Tomoko there, that was another benefit of Katashi asking for more time.

It was time to figure out a way to break the news to Tomoko; she meant too much to him. He couldn't and wouldn't risk her in a fight against a ninja far above his caliber. He wouldn't risk Chiwa either, and of course Kaori, pregnant with her third child-a child who would never know its father, Yuu thought sadly-wouldn't be there either.

But when the time came Yuu wouldn't be alone, he knew better than that.

And he wasn't about to let himself fall into a trap, even if that wasn't Gammo Katashi's intention Yuu would make sure the only trap there was his.

And then the Tsuchikage would know the wrath of the Yurei clan.

They reached the army, Yuu was confident they hadn't been followed-he'd worried that Gammo had used the whole negotiation as an opportunity to track them to the troops somehow so he'd run a couple of circles before going to the army; still he was surprised to spot most of the Hattori clan and Tetsuo with the fast marching army.

The rearguard had beaten them back, which meant the odds of hiding their disappearance were pretty low.

But the entire army was moving fast for the border, their pursuers beaten back tonight; the land of Lightning would be protected, even if the cost was selling out their allies.

Yuu knew now that that was a price Daimyo Taiko was willing to pay.

* * *

"So," Kabuto said as he entered Lord Orochimaru's presence, "Young Yukio thinks he can play a little game with us."

"So it would seem." Orochimaru laughed softly.

"The Five are all getting more willful, Lord. I think perhaps eliminating Controllers is a poor idea."

"Weren't you the one who thought it'd be brilliant to breed Kasumi and Kotaro as a form of leverage against the both of them?"

"My lord, I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong." Kabuto shrugged, "You wanted leverage against Kotaro-kun, I thought that would be just the thing."

"And yet they haven't touched each other yet." Orochimaru sneered, "It's almost as if you can't force them to fall in love."

"I'm sure if we still had Inoichi we could; he was the most talented of all and with enough time and effort I'm sure he could have had the two of them doing whatever we wanted."

"But we _don't _have him now, do we?" Lord Orochimaru said lightly.

"No, my lord, we don't." Kabuto admitted.

"Don't misunderstand, Kabuto-kun, the Controllers are a good idea but much like the Sound Five themselves if we can't trust them we can't rely on their work. The trick will be to get the loyalty or at least the willing service of the Five. You may recall I know a thing or two about human nature and if we give them sufficient time Kotaro and Kasumi will breed."

"Of course my lord." Kabuto said, though he doubted it.

"In the meantime, enjoy working with the Ishida daughters. I expect to send for the third and fourth soon, the fifth will be the only one of difficulty."

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto said. "I do look forward to tomorrow's tests."

"And I look forward t reading your detailed reports on them. I may even pop in for a brief visit, I do so enjoy watching brilliant minds at work."

Kabuto felt a bit of pride, even though he knew that was exactly what Orochimaru wanted, he wouldn't lie; he was _brilliant_.

In the morning of the next day he'd have two lovely Ishida daughters to test his brilliance on, he might even remove a few fingers and see if they grew back; it was mad of course but so was climbing vertical surfaces without chakra.

He couldn't wait.

Still it troubled him, without the Controllers the Five were drifting further from righteousness; he knew he and Lord Orochimaru would never have anything to fear from Shiroi, or by extension Kurai, but Kotaro would figure out sooner or later that his father was with the enemy now, or at least on his way.

And Kasumi, whom he'd thought could be trusted, had already betrayed them once, and they weren't even sure why.

If she wasn't in love with Kotaro why had she tried to help him?

Gratitude maybe.

And now Yukio, an outright traitor; he honestly believed he could hide that secret from them?

Well without Controllers he probably could . . . but for the time being they still had one monitoring the brats and that would have to be enough.

If the could though, they'd need to get Inoichi back and just find some leverage on _him_, never mind creating leverage on the Five.

* * *

At that moment Kakashi and Inoichi were far from the palace, however.

They were nearing the halfway point between Konoha and the Land of Waves; soon, Kakashi knew, they'd find the ninja army.

Soon he'd be reunited with the Konoha ninja, with his Hokage.

And then they'd go back, and he'd save his son. Even if it meant killing the boy's mother; unlike Kotaro, Hatake Kakashi had no problems killing someone he cared about to protect someone he loved; Anko would have wanted it that way anyway.

So that was how it would be. That was how it had to be.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note: **Here it is, the bonus chapter for reaching four hundred reviews. It's been a long road for our favorite shinobi with further still to go but your support helps speed them along their winding path. I want to thank all those who have reviewed the story and all those who will review in the future; it's your support more than anything else that keeps this story going.


	68. The Return

**Chapter Sixty-Six**

Orochimaru smiled warmly and sipped some tea.

Kotaro shifted uncomfortably in front of the table that he and the man possessing-no, borrowing-his mother's body shared. There was a light supper and tea laid out, but Kotaro felt as if he'd already eaten at some point but he couldn't remember when.

He forced himself to settle down and asked, "Kamikage-sama, might I ask why I am here?"

"Because you will be of use to me." Orochimaru said, "And because looking at you with these eyes brings a calm over this body. There's no need to rush, your mission can be carried out at leisure, and is best carried out at night."

"Yes, Kamikage-sama, but I was just wondering what that mission is."

Orochimaru took another sip of tea and nodded to Kabuto who knelt down at one corner of the table and presented a scroll.

"Here is the data I've collected on Ishida Eri so far."

"You've begun procedures?"

"No, Lord." Kabuto said, "Just physical examinations. From the outside she's a perfectly healthy young woman. Athletic yes, but with none of the telltale signs of ninja training."

"Fascinating." Lord Orochimaru said. He smiled at Kotaro, "You see Kotaro-kun, the Ishida clan possesses a great ability, the limits of which we are only now attempting to discern."

"Is it my lord's wish that I exterminate this clan?" Kotaro wondered.

Ishida seemed mildly familiar . . . did he know anyone by that name?

Ah the woman at dinner last week . . . last night? Some time.

She'd been Ishida Eri . . . or had he just heard that name now as Lord Kabuto mentioned it?

He wasn't sure.

But Lord Orochimaru laughed and said, "No, no dear boy. At least not yet, but I do appreciate the initiative. You see we want to study the entire Ishida clan, we have two and soon we'll have our third. If my calculations are correct our agents will be in place to seize the fourth soon."

"And you wish me to capture the fifth?"

"The fifth Ishida daughter has disappeared from the proverbial map." Lord Orochimaru said, the slightest hint of irritation in his voice, "Our agents who were supposed to watch her have no idea where she's gone. We only know that she was in the Land of Waves and that her husband is now with the armies of Water, which brings us to how you will be useful."

"What ever I can do, my lord." Kotaro said, feeling confused.

"While the rest of the Sound Five lost their bodies in the sea conflict, you alone preserved yours. The ship that carries it is continuing to the Land of Water, to the Village Hidden in Mist." Kabuto explained.

"There you would have found Ito Ichiteru, the eldest Ishida daughter. However, while we do not know where she is our agents are certain that she is not there. So you have a new target."

The Daimyo? Some other important official of the Land of Water? Kotaro wondered to himself as much as he was able but he considered, Orochimaru-sama wouldn't have bothered mentioning Ishida-that is Ito at all if she weren't relevant. "Does she have other family?" He asked.

Kabuto smiled sinisterly, "Yes. Her parents have been located by our agents; it wasn't hard, they weren't hiding. They have no idea how important they are to us."

"It would be beneficial to study this bloodline from its source, perhaps see if we can discover which parent this inherent bloodline comes from." Lord Orochimaru said, "With most of their ninja force outside of the city you should encounter token resistance, some Genin perhaps. With the forces available on your vessel invasion of the city is impossible, but a single elite shinobi should be able to infiltrate the town, steal away these two people, and leave before too long."

"However," Kabuto added, "our agents have been told to track down the location of the enemy's hideout, the place where Konoha and Suna's refugees hid away for four years. If they have obtained that information you will go there. Ito Ichiteru may be in that place; if she is you will take her and her present family as well, we want as much of the bloodline as possible for our experiments."

Kotaro hesitated, then he asked, "What are their capabilities?"

"The parents are elders, they will pose no threat to you. They may, however, have the fortitude to attempt self harm to prevent their capture. A corpse is an acceptable return though not preferable." Kabuto said.

"Understood, but I mean what is this bloodline I'm hunting. What does it do? What is it's usefulness?"

"It is useful because we've told you it is." Kabuto said, but Orochimaru cleared his throat sharply.

"There's no harm in the first of the five knowing what he faces." Orochimaru smiled, "We believe, Kotaro, that the Ishida clan has somehow found a new source of power. They do not seem to use or rely on chakra in the same way that we do. This new form of technique would make those who can sue it all but invisible to sensor ninja. More importantly the Ishida all seem to use this power to accomplish their dreams; climbing any surface, adapting to any temperature."

Kotaro frowned, for some reason he felt like he didn't want to say what he was about to say.

Like, if he'd thought of something like this he didn't want to share it; if the Emperor hadn't considered it let him go on not considering it.

But the words fumbled out of his mouth; have any of the Ishida become shinobi?"

Kabuto seemed amused, "Why yes. One of them. The only male."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to capture him?" Kotaro asked, "To study him? If he doesn't use chakra-"

"But he does." Kabuto said, "I've observed him myself. He uses chakra, and while he does seem to have an abnormal reserve it is not unheard of. He seems not to have the same ability as the rest of the clan."

Kotaro didn't know why but he felt a bit of relief at that.

He felt like he didn't want the emperor to capture this Ishida guy . . . maybe . . . maybe he knew him?

Was Ishida a friend?

Did that mean he was a Sound Shinobi?

No, Lord Orochimaru would have said so if he were. Or would he?

"Very well," Kotaro said, "I will capture these Ishida elders when you are prepared to send me, Lord."

"Of course you will." Lord Orochimaru smiled, "I suppose you'd best be on your way then."

Kotaro nodded and got up to leave for the channeling chamber.

But he wondered . . . why did Ishida sound so familiar, so _relevant_.

He thought to himself, _maybe before I bring the old folks in I ask a question or two just for me, not for Lord Orochimaru._

But then a voice in his head said he never did anything for himself; everything he did was and _should be _for Lord Orochimaru.

But he was getting better at telling those voices from his own, and with that came the ability to ignore them somewhat.

He had a feeling like that made the voices really scared and he thought if he had to guess it would be because if their only purpose was to cause him confusion and doubt, they would outlive their usefulness if he ever became fully immune to them.

He liked that.

* * *

Chouji hesitated when he approached the serpent shrine only to see Ino emerging from it.

She seemed surprised, "Chouji-kun? I'm glad to see you."

"Surprised?" Chouji smiled.

"Pleasantly." Ino smiled back.

"So what was so important in there, Ino?" Chouji asked.

"Hmm?" Ino raised an eyebrow, "Oh what _wasn't_? I mean . . . he's a monster but Kabuto's medical research is very compelling."

Chouji frowned. His wife was keeping something from him, but he couldn't tell what. He didn't like it when Ino didn't trust him enough to be honest.

He glanced at the members of his team and wondered if maybe it was because they were there.

Sure, that had to be it. He'd ask Ino again when they were alone, and maybe she'd elaborate or explain what she was hiding from him.

He offered her his hand and with a millisecond's hesitation she took it and they headed back to the camp together.

Ino seemed distracted so Chouji didn't say anything.

He just watched her from the corner of his eye.

She didn't just seem distracted, he realized, she seemed almost distressed. Afraid.

He frowned and asked, "Is something wrong, Ino-chan?"

"No." She said simply. "It's just cold."

Chouji frowned, "I wish I had a jacket to give you." He said.

"Don't be silly, I'm fine." Ino said with a strained smile.

Chouji said, "Ino . . . you know you can always tell me anything."

"Really?" Ino asked, sounding nervous.

"Of course!" Chouji said, "We're _married _of course you can tell me anything!"

"Well then . . ." Ino hesitated.

"What?" Chouji asked.

"Your hand is very clammy." Ino said flatly, pulling her hand away and putting it in her pocket.

"Oh . . ." Chouji frowned.

"I didn't want to be mean." Ino assured him.

"Yeah, um . . . I understand." Chouji said.

But Ino was acting strangely.

* * *

By the dawn of the next morning Shikamaru felt refreshed and even energized.

Last night had been a good night.

He was eager to talk to Ino about what she'd learned in Orochimaru's study and see how she felt about the idea of using her clan's abilities to try to figure out the Jutsu that Orochimaru was using to let himself and the Sound Five project themselves.

It was asking a lot of her, and during a war march.

Which only reminded him that they would be fighting another battle before too long.

He had to be ready for that, but for once it didn't drag him down or make him feel tired and weary.

Even though the big picture had barely changed he knew one thing; the Five weren't loyal slaves, Yukio wasn't a loyal slave and that meant Temari would be happy.

And it meant Kotaro might not be a loyal slave. Heck it meant that Shiroi and Kurai might not even be loyal, the idea that the Emperor's right hand might not even need to be severed, that it might instead be used to strangle him had Shikamaru feeling . . . well, almost optimistic.

He knew he couldn't afford that feeling for long.

The shinobi camp was packing up. Many of the tents and sleeping accommodations had been provided by Jutsu and were stored or dispelled in seconds, and having been one of those awake the longest Shikamaru was actually one of the last to rise.

The army needed to be ready to move out fast. They needed to be prepared for battle because deep in enemy territory a day and a half from Konohagakure there was almost no telling when they'd find one. The only certainty was that sooner or later they'd fine one.

A big one if Shikamaru's guess was correct.

But it was what they'd come for; the chance to fight the enemy and retake their land.

Luckily with most of the Sound army fighting the Lightning forces their big battle wasn't likely to happen until they reached the capital.

Shikamaru packed his things and quickly joined the rest of the army as they moved out. Everything was done with almost complete silence; the ninja were on the move again and their enemies would all too soon know their terrible vengeance.

And for once Shikamaru didn't scoff when he thought that.

Because if even the Five could be turned, then this wasn't just a fruitless war.

The people could be made to remember how things were, maybe in a year, maybe in ten years.

Someday things could go back to the way they were; where ninja were proud of their abilities and not forced to hide in shame and fear.

When a Chuunin exam was still a legitimate substitute for open war.

When Shikamaru and his family could live quietly without a lot of battles and violence-except the ones bound to occur between him and Temari of course.

Somehow, even though he had his doubts, just the thought that Yukio of all people could defy Orochimaru gave Shikamaru hope, and coupled with Naruto's return he was downright optimistic.

He wouldn't let his friends down, he wouldn't let the people down.

He was Konoha's Genius, and he wasn't one to be too modest.

He knew Orochimaru and Kabuto were both brilliant, he knew he wasn't necessarily smarter than them and that they had more resources.

But he was ready to take them on anyway.

* * *

Yuu closed his eyes and rested in the back of a wagon as the defeated army and shinobi fled for Kumogakure.

He'd have to tell Kaori what had happened . . . then he'd have to kill the Tsuchikage.

The armies for Earth and Stone were following them but staying back far enough that the Daimyo hadn't ordered an attack, and so far as Yuu knew the rearguard hadn't reported anything.

But what was he going to tell his sister?

He opened his eyes to glance at the two women in the cart with him; Tomoko his love, and Chiwa, the stranger he didn't even know he could trust.

But he trusted her for now.

The person not in the cart was Kimiko-sensei, and Yuu knew he'd have to learn to live with that.

He wasn't over the loss by any means, he certainly wasn't over losing his brother-in-law.

But he knew it wasn't the end of the world, and he knew he wasn't the only person saddened by their loss.

He wondered, if he had a daughter of his own someday-if he lived that long-would it be disrespectful to call her Kimiko since Kimiko wasn't really a member of his family?

But then what was a family? He certainly considered Tomoko part of his family and they sure weren't married or anything.

He wondered . . . should he try to change that?

Takumi and Kimiko, two better shinobi than he was, had died. What guarantee did he have that he'd live to see the end of the day, let alone the end of the war or the end of his second decade for that matter?

If he lived, if he actually somehow survived assassinating the Tsuchikage . . . well he and Tomoko were both adults and he suspected she cared for him as deeply as he cared for her.

So . . . maybe they could talk about it.

Not actually do it of course, not yet anyway-but talk about it.

He wondered if she'd be willing to . . . he knew she wanted a physical relationship. He'd be lying if he didn't admit that the idea held a great deal of appeal. But marriage . . . she might not be willing to go for that.

Yeah, marriage was a bit extreme. He was just . . . confused, having survived a battle too many good men and women hadn't. It was making him think crazy things, there was no way he and Tomoko were ready to even _talk _about marriage; he'd only freak her out if he brought it up.

He closed his eyes again and tried to think of something else to think about.

Maybe he ought to consider Chiwa's trustworthiness.

Who exactly trusted Chiwa? Had Kimiko-sensei?

He doubted that.

She was smart enough not to trust a stranger who could be an enemy spy.

So he needed to keep an eye on Chiwa, that was it.

Yeah, that was the real important thing; kill the Tsuchikage and keep an eye on Chiwa. Things like marrying Tomoko . . . well it was just too soon for that, she wasn't the sort of girl who'd be interested in that kind of mushy stuff anyway.

* * *

Incidentally, as she rode in the cart pretending to sleep Tomoko thought if she were giving up the spying work, giving up being a Shinobi all together . . . well maybe Yuu would want to be with her. Didn't she deserve that much happiness after all she'd done for her village?

No, of course not because she hadn't done anything. She'd spied a while then sent a messenger bird telling Shikamaru-sama that his fears had been confirmed.

And even though she told herself she was done she knew she'd do whatever Shikamaru-sama told her to. She didn't even know why but if he told her to try to rebel against Taiko she would, if he told her to go AWOL and rejoin Konoha she would . . .

She was Konoha's property . . . well, maybe not quite that.

But she belonged to her nation just as she felt, honestly, it belonged to her.

But she wanted to belong to Kumogakure too, and to the land of Lightning.

She who was loyal to Konoha and lived in Kumo didn't quite see why the border needed to exist.

The people were the same, some might have different shades of skin, be different genders, and sure their flags came in two separate colors but . . . well heck why should she betray one for the other? Why couldn't they work together?

Why did she have to be Tomoko of Konoha or Tomoko of Kumo?

And would Yuu like her if she were Tomoko of Konoha? Would he love her?

Maybe she'd find some way to convince him to marry her in the mere days before he ran off on his suicidal quest to kill the Tsuchikage. Then she could just force him to be Yuu of wherever the heck his wife decided on and she could be Tomoko of whatever she wanted.

She sat up and groaned slightly because she realized then what she needed to do.

She needed to stop Konoha and Kumo from going down the dangerous road Taiko was leading them on. If Naruto-sensei and Shikamaru-sama won back Konoha and rebuilt their power their bond with Kumogakure would never be very strong again; not while Taiko was the Daimyo.

And Taiko would always see Konoha and the Land of Fire as his rightful territory since he'd married the daughter of the Daimyo.

Sooner or later, even if both nations survived the current war, they'd find themselves annihilating each other all over again.

Tomoko hesitated and thought to herself . . . Taiko was the problem.

And she didn't like where her plotting little brain was going.

She really hoped Shikamaru-sama's brain didn't go in that very same direction.

Or worse that he didn't tell her to use her best judgment.

Or worse still, that he didn't actually accept her resignation.

Or worse of all, that he didn't refuse her resignation.

_Okay, now you're going in circles! _Tomoko thought. _Stop it._

She smiled at Yuu, lightly asleep and probably just as full of turmoil as she was; after all he was planning on assassinating the Tsuchikage after all.

What a pair they made, two doomed young people in love with each other but doomed to duty.

She sighed and closed her eyes. She went back to sleep.

* * *

Gaara had to admit to feeling just a little nervous as he stood before the silhouette of his city.

Sunagakure was there in the distance, pristine and beautiful ready to be retaken.

They would have it back today.

He glanced at Temari and Matsuri, his right and left hands-it wasn't really important whom was which though he was fairly confident they would have argued about it at some point by now.

He kept a careful eye on Kyoko too, he didn't want anything to happen, after all.

He nodded to his Shinobi and to the Taisho who raised his spear in the air for his soldiers and samurai to see.

And the army moved out.

The ninja weren't far behind them.

Today was the day Sunagakure was taken back.

The soldiers advanced at a normal pace, no point tiring them out running through the desert sands. For his part Gaara did his best to harden the sand on the path before the army into a road speeding them along and easing the journey.

He was aided by the few other Sunagakure shinobi who could control sand, but he found he didn't feel drained of his chakra by the action.

Because today was a big day, he didn't have time for weariness or fear.

He stood on a moving wave of sand as they approached the city which just grew larger as they came nearer and he thought to himself; _today is the day. Prepare, Sunagakure, the Kazekage is bringing your sons and daughters home to their families, home to their-to _our_ city._

And in the blink of an eye the fighting was on. The city was still just in the distance when the first signs of resistance rose, bowmen firing from the dunes.

The shinobi moved to make short work of them, enemy ninja met them and the battle was joined.

But Gaara had been hoping for his, Emiko had assured him it would happen and he'd still dared to worry that it might not.

The enemy army attacking his people in the dunes . . . didn't they realize who they were dealing with?

The Kazekage had returned to his city, and by the powers he meant to reclaim it.

Nobody was going to stand in his way, especially not fools fighting from the sands. The enemy must have had a trick or two up their sleeves, but Gaara wasn't going to give them the time to play them.

He threw himself into the fight without a word or a battle cry, but those who saw him knew to fear all the same.

**To Be Continued . . .**

Note: I know it's been a while since I updated; there's been a lot going on in life and it's been hard to find the time or sometimes I admit even the motivation to sit down and write a six page chapter each week, but believe me I always feel terrible when I don't update. In part because I really do want to finish this story, and in part because I know there are a lot of people who really want to see it finished.

But here's the new chapter at long, long last. I'll do the best I can to have another ready soon. I'm not saying it'll be tomorrow, it might not be any sooner than the regular time next week, but I'm going to try to have it done as long as there are people still reading.


	69. Reuinited

**Chapter Sixty Seven**

There was a ripple of explosions over the battlefield, Hirate Akira shielded his wife with his own body as a cloud of sand swept over them.

She squeezed his hand and said over the din of the battle, "It will work out my love. Take the capital, no matter what you must take the capital. I will see you there."

Akira didn't fully understand what that was supposed to mean, he just smiled even though her eyes were closed against the sand cloud and he told her, "That is the plan, Emiko-chan. We'll eat dinner in the city tonight!"

"No." Emiko said a little sadly, "But that's all right, Akira-kun. Just win."

He didn't have time to consider what that meant, another ripple of explosions came.

The ninja were engaged with Sound guerrillas, who had to have bowmen firing explosive rounds; an all too common weapon these days.

A little part of Akira would always hate Nara Shikamaru for pioneering the wide use of small scale explosive arrows and bolts; explosive tags used to be rare enough that only heavy weapons and ninja saw them, now-a-days they were the first line of defense against ninja.

And they had a tendency to work far better against normal soldiers than they did against their intended prey.

Akira readied his spear and ran across the desert ground that Lord Gaara had hardened.

He heard some of his men screaming where he suspected the cloud ended; an enemy ambush awaited.

He leapt into the air, emerging from the cloud and striking out at an enemy soldier who'd clearly not expected his strike.

The man wore the uniform of the Sound country instead of that of a Wind soldier; these men were zealots, it explained their unnecessary attack in the face of such overwhelming odds.

Akira's spear blade dove into the man's chest, cutting through the light armor he wore.

Hitting the ground harder than he'd wanted to, Akira swept out with his spear, the shaft of it slamming into one man, hitting him in the groin while the blade sliced into the stomach of another.

Akira didn't envy either of them.

A few Sound ninja were there as well, and one of them came for Akira, shuriken flying for him.

He leapt forward, past the line of fire and spun as the woman landed in the sand behind him.

But before he could prepare to attack her the ground swallowed her up, sand closing around her like a giant monstrous mouth. Akira could see a look of horror on her face before it too was swallowed up by the sand.

Sand that suddenly compressed with a crunch so audible that Akira had no trouble hearing it over the din of battle, and he looked away before the red stain began seeping through the sand coffin.

He didn't know if it'd been the Kazekage or one of his other sand-capable shinobi, but he knew that was no way for a warrior to die.

Funny how it didn't bother him.

These zealots were throwing their lives away for their belief; that _was _a good way to die. He didn't share their belief and he didn't even understand it; they were just his enemy and one that it was difficult to respect.

They had slain women and children for their god-emperor, but Akira would show them his god.

The might of the samurai and the way of the warrior. That was the all powerful law that ruled his life, and he would obey it, granting each of his enemies a quick death.

But when he saw the dragon descending from on high he shuddered.

Maybe there was something to that faith of theirs.

* * *

Gaara saw the dragon coming down out of the sky and his eyes narrowed.

Friend or foe?

He knew it for what it was; a puppet.

But was it his brother's or someone else's? He knew if he wanted to get the drop on himself he would use one of Kankuro's puppets for a better chance at it.

But unless Gaara was horribly mistaken Kankuro shouldn't be flying around in a dragon above their battle. He had to admit to wondering what had become of his brother, but he expected Kankuro must have been with the Lightning army, he hadn't had a chance to ask Naruto's "secret" girlfriend, Hinata about that.

The dragon opened its jaws, but instead of a gout of flame a swarm of insects issued forth.

With a screech that would have terrified people who didn't have "Kazekage" in their title a flock of giant black hawks descended from the sky above, into the ranks of the zealots which were already being decimated.

"Oh that's just overkill." The Kazekage heard Temari say nearby, though he almost missed the comment.

With the dragon not a threat he'd gone back to battling the fanatics, still he could hear the smirk in her voice and he felt the need to remind her, "Accidents can happen, Temari. Let's not leave our friends to fight alone."

"Of course not, Kazekage-sama." Temari said, "I wouldn't dream of it."

She swept her fan out and leapt onto it, riding it into the thinning throng of enemy soldiers. Kyoko motioned to imitate her but Gaara held out a hand, "Stay with me, I don't want you out of my sight."

Kyoko looked troubled but Gaara didn't offer her any explanation; now wasn't the time.

The hand he'd used to stop her he now used to direct a swarm of sand shuriken from his gourd at some of the enemy soldiers. They tried to defect the projectiles, but being made of sand the shuriken just burst when they struck the enemy spears, then without losing any momentum they reformed and struck the enemy's chest and neck.

He kept an eye on Kyoko, he knew what she was, knew that the enemy would want her.

But he trusted her because Temari trusted her and he didn't want the girl taken from his sister, be it by an enemy blade or an enemy's proverbial net.

He really didn't expect the literal net.

With one eye on Kyoko he didn't notice it in time as one gutsy enemy Shinobi cast a net over him that his sand barely managed to stop in time.

But when the net exploded, breaking a hole through his sand defense so that a flurry of metal shuriken could sail through.

Gaara saw still more explosive tags on the shuriken and he quickly had the sand on the ground leap up to swallow the shuriken and pull them underground.

Gaara leapt back with Kyoko as the ground bulged up and sand flew into the air thanks to the explosive tags on the shuriken going off.

The enemy shinobi came for them but Gaara was done tolerating him; he sent a wave of sand at the man only to be thwarted by substitution.

Child's play.

He stood back to back with Kyoko and glared for some sign of the shinobi reemerging. He knew the man wouldn't be underground, he could feel the sand around him and knew that there was nobody tunneling.

So he looked up and a torrent of sand followed his gaze, searching for that enemy shinobi.

"Kazekage-sama!" Kyoko screamed and Gaara spun around letting his sand fall on top of both himself, and Kyoko to shield them, and on top of the enemy Jounin to crush him.

Not a bad fight, but Gaara wouldn't let himself be outdone by anyone.

Sunagakure was _his _city; and he'd take it back in short order.

* * *

Naomasa felt nervous when Shikamaru made the subtle hand gesture that their team had worked out indicated an approaching enemy.

_Here it comes . . . the enemy . . . _Naomasa thought.

"What have we got?" Yomiko asked aloud, utterly defeating the purpose of their sensei's silent hand gesture.

Still Shikamaru persisted and held up three fingers-three . . . three what? Three squads?

Naomasa saw his sensei use the rapid hand seals for Shadow Possession and-

Two enemy ninja came to an abrupt stop and fell into Shikamaru-sensei's stance.

But there was no sign of the third.

Nao and Yomiko leapt down out of the trees, the first man wasn't familiar at all but the second was.

"Kotaro?" Nao gawked, then scolded himself for saying something so stupid.

"Hatake Kakashi!" Yomiko squeaked, "The Copy Cat Ninja! Why are you-"

"Down!" Naomasa interrupted her, throwing himself at her to get her out of the way when the third ninja came in like a whirlwind.

She was careful to avoid Kakashi and Inoichi and their shadows, and she leapt back several paces and threw a shuriken into the treetops above.

It became a bright light, limiting the effectiveness of Shikamaru-sensei's shadows but not freeing Hatake Kakashi and the other ninja.

"What in the world-" The other man gawked, "We were _followed_?"

"Impressive, I didn't even sense her." Kakashi admitted.

The woman was dressed in a white short sleeved jumpsuit with white bandages wrapped around her arms and legs so that no actual skin was visible.

She even wore a mask, with only her amber hair and eyes visible.

But Nao felt like he recognized her . . . who was she?

Shikamaru's voice carried from the tree behind her, a shadow clone even though she had to see his shadows connected to Kakashi and Inoichi and be able to tell his location from that alone.

"An interest choice in assassins. Orochimaru doesn't hold anything back, does he? Hatake Kakashi, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Yamamoto Miyuki."

The woman, Miyuki stood up straight and removed her mask.

She smiled brightly and said, "Didn't think you'd recognize me, Shikamaru-senpai. I don't suppose my old Sensei's with you, hmm?"

Naomasa relaxed a little-but not much-and it was still too much.

Miyuki struck out, the bandages on her arms shooting out and wrapping around Nao's wrists and binding him and Yomiko, pulling the both of them to Miyuki whose hands were ready with Kunai.

The bandages were cut by a pair of expertly thrown shuriken though, as Tenten emerged from the treetops along with Hyuuga Neji and Rock Lee who appeared on either side of Miyuki and roughly pulled her arms behind her back.

The young woman smiled at Nao, and said, "I wasn't going to hurt you, you know. I don't like hurting people . . . I only came to talk."

"Oh you'll talk," Yomiko snarled as she tried to remove the severed bandages, "You'll talk plenty, you traitor!"

Miyuki disappeared in a puff of smoke and suddenly the bandages on Nao and Yomiko's hands burst into smoke as well.

Nao felt someone take hold of him; firmly but not painfully.

He glanced and saw that Miyuki-or a clone-was holding on to Yomiko and it wasn't hard to guess who was holding on to him.

"Is this it?" Miyuki scoffed, "Is this all? Nobody else? Nobody with some sense? If I wanted these kids dead they'd _be _dead!"

"Fair enough." Neji said, "So what are you doing here?"

"I followed those two;" Miyuki said, gesturing to Kakashi and Inoichi.

"And what are they doing here?" Yomiko demanded.

"We escaped from the capital, we were coming to find Naruto." Inoichi said, "We know things he has to know . . . we didn't know about the young lady following us though."

"How long were you with us?" Kakashi asked.

"I first detected you at the shrine in the next town over. The whole place has been abuzz with talk of the invaders coming I figured you must have been spies. I took a chance." Miyuki said. "Can we all calm down now?"

"You have to let us take you into custody if you expect to come into our camp." Neji said.

"Nobody takes me into custody." Miyuki said sharply.

"We can force the issue." Neji said threateningly.

"And I can kill these two." Miyuki warned.

"What do you hope to accomplish?" Kakashi asked, "If you want to rejoin the Konoha forces it's best to cooperate."

Miyuki's eyes narrowed and her lip curled in a snarl-or at least he Miyuki holding Yomiko did.

"You assume a lot, Hatake Kakashi. I will not be subdued."

Naomasa knew it probably wasn't his place, but he knew Miyuki was a friend of Hitomi's and he didn't want her getting hurt.

So he . . . well, he sort of hurt her.

Just a little.

He stomped on her foot and elbowed her sharply in the stomach. When she didn't dissipate he knew he had the real one and Tenten's kunai sailed down to destroy the second shadow clone before it could harm Yomiko.

He spun Miyuki's arms around her back the way he'd seen Rock Lee and Neji do and held her in place until Shikamaru-sensei's shadow could reach them both.

Nao was temporarily entrapped in the shadow possession Jutsu, he was released almost right away.

Miyuki laughed bitterly though and she said, "I should have known. I guess we're never too old to be helpless."

"You're not helpless," Nao said, "You're with friends."

"Am I?" Miyuki asked coldly, "Am I really, Ishida?"

* * *

The battle around them was all but over when Kankuro was finally taken down.

Temari threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him, laughing like a teenage girl.

It caught him completely by surprise, but he took it as a sign that the fighting was truly finished if his older sister was willing to risk hugging him.

In spite of himself Kankuro found himself returning the gesture, "I didn't think I'd see _you _today," He told her.

"Look who's talking!" Temari laughed, "You guys just flew down out of the sky all dramatic like, I'm the one who wasn't expecting anything. Man, way to make our brother's chief strategist look like an idiot."

"Who's the chief strategist?" Kankuro asked, wondering if he'd actually managed a move even the vaunted Shikamaru hadn't anticipated.

But Temari answered, "I am." As they stood back up.

So Kankuro said, "Oh . . . no wonder it was so easy."

She punched him in the shoulder so hard he fell to his knees again.

He saw the shadow of his brother loom over him, Gaara held out his hand and helped Kankuro to his feet.

Kankuro smiled at Gaara, and Gaara spared one of his rare smiles for Kankuro.

"We missed you in Waves."

"Yeah, we had other plans." Kankuro admitted.

Gaara nodded.

Temari waved a hand towards their city, "Well?" She asked, "Sunagakure awaits."

"It sure does; and I think we finished off it's defense." Kankuro said, then quickly punched Temari in the shoulder.

"Ah! You puppy kicking, baby teasing, kitten throwing bastard!" Temari shouted, kicking him in the shin.

Lady Tsunade laughed, and Kankuro felt himself blushing with embarrassment; what kind of example was he setting?

But the former Hokage just said, "Anyone can learn to fight like a ninja, it takes a certain kind of person to fight like a sibling."

The three Sand siblings just laughed-then Kankuro took another swing at Temari but missed and Gaara's sand tripped the both of them.

"Try to act professional." The Kazekage said, despite having just participated in the mayhem, "We have a city to reclaim."

* * *

Akira had a noticeable limp when he finally set foot through the gates of Sunagakure.

He arrived first, alongside the Kazekage, Kankuro, Temari, and the former fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade.

The response was not what Akira had been expecting.

It was a sound like thunder as a mass of assembled civilians broke out in wild applauds and cheers, cheers that only intensified when the banner of the Land of Wind, carried by one of his men passed through the gates as well.

Akira still expected a fight when the crowd suddenly rushed for the soldiers, but there was no battle to be had.

Long separated spouses found each other again, parents separated from their sons and daughters by a terrible war embraced their offspring as if they were mere children again.

The sound of celebration was deafening, the entire city was alive with cheers and joyous laughter.

Not at all the response the battle hardened samurai had expected.

But through all the joy and laughter, even the tears Akira felt something very strongly.

This was right.

Four years apart had not changed the vital fact that this was Sunagakure, its people were the people of the Land of Wind, its ninja and its soldiers were servants of those same people.

They had suffered every indignity in war; from the loss of their Daimyo to the loss of their own capital city.

But they were still the people of the Land of Wind.

There were a lot of handshakes, a lot of shoulder slapping and bowing, even a lot of hugs from complete strangers.

People even tried to hug the Kazekage, though not very many made the attempt, and most of those that did seemed horribly intimidated when they realized just what they were doing.

Akira ordered one of his men to look for Emiko. He wanted his wife to share in the revelry, and he wanted to know she was safe.

A great deal of time passed and he began to feel anxious, nervous even.

His second in command came running up to him, the man had two low ranking soldiers with him, one of them the man that Akira had ordered to find Emiko.

He shouted something, but all Akira heard over the roar of the crowd was something that sounded an awful lot like 'missing' and he couldn't make sense of that.

The man tried again, shouting much louder this time and right into Akira's ear.

"The lady is missing!"

Her words echoed in his mind then; _No matter what you must take the capital. I will see you there._

Only it made sense now . . . she hadn't meant the capital of the land of Wind, she'd meant the capital of the empire, Otogakure.

"By the powers . . . she _knew _. . ." Akira whispered, and suddenly the celebration was meaningless to him.

She must have guessed she'd be taken . . . and she guessed _where _she'd be taken.

And she never guessed wrong.

* * *

Shikamaru felt anxious as the three semi-prisoners were brought before Naruto-sama, who immediately ordered they be set free.

Sakura-senpai, managed to convince him to wait until they'd explained how they came to be there, and the Hokage quickly concurred, looking embarrassed for his upsurge of emotion.

But Shikamaru could understand, Naruto hadn't seen Kakashi for a long time and frankly, surrounded by most of the Twelve and elite, loyal Jounin these three stood no chance of actually assassinating the Hokage, even if that was what they were there for.

But Shikamaru understood and agreed with Sakura; they couldn't take chances.

First Inoichi explained how the Yamanaka clan-or rather parts of it-were being used to control the Five; this gave Shikamaru a variety of ideas on how to combat the presence of the Five using those members of the Yamanaka clan available to the Konoha army.

Kakashi's tale was a bit less eventful; he'd been kept in a cell for years with rare glimpses of exercise. But he hadn't been tortured or experimented on for, as far as he could see, no reason other than that Orochimaru had promised Kotaro he wouldn't.

Shikamaru found that hard to believe, there had to be a different reason; but he wasn't sure what it would be.

Finally they came to Miyuki. Naruto didn't even ask her any questions, he just hugged her and said, "I'm so glad you're safe."

"Yes, Sensei . . ." Miyuki said patiently as she waited for Naruto to release her. She made no move to return the hug, though her eyes displayed affection it was clear she didn't feel comfortable being embraced.

Shikamaru could understand that; it could be awkward getting hugged by your commander in chief.

But when he let her go Miyuki took a couple steps back and folded her arms. She said, "I'd appreciate if that didn't happen again, Sensei."

"Sure, sure," Naruto chuckled. "Man, Hitomi and Hara are going to be so glad you're safe."

"Are they here?" Miyuki asked.

"No." Naruto admitted, "I sent them off with-"

"Wait." Sakura said, her eyes cold, "It doesn't matter where you sent them Naruto."

"What? Come on, Sakura-chan, these are my kids we're talking about, they probably miss each other as much as I-"

"She's right, Sensei, it really doesn't matter." Miyuki interrupted, "I'm not here to reminisce . . . I'm here on behalf of my master in the hopes that you'll hear what he has to propose."

Shikamaru bristled, and Naruto's face became a mask of denial.

"What?" The Sixth Hokage chuckled. "Wh-who's your master?"

Miyuki's gaze didn't waver a bit when she said, "The God-Emperor, of course. He chose me to speak to you, Sensei, because he knew you would not kill me. Because he knew you would trust me . . . because you know you _can _trust me."

**To Be Continued . . .**


	70. See Reason

**Chapter Sixty-Eight**

"No, no, no," Naomasa scowled, "No you're _not _working for Orochimaru!"

"I beg your pardon, but I don't think I need your leave to-" Miyuki began but Naomasa interrupted her.

"No!" He barked, "You can't! Hitomi spent the whole four years since Konoha fell looking for you-for _you_, and you were working for the same monster that burned our homes?"

Miyuki's gaze hardened, "I am not responsible for the actions of others. But if I had been found by Hitomi I would have been glad for it; she would be an ideal convert."

"Test subject you mean." Shikamaru scoffed.

"If you please," Miyuki said calmly, "I'm just here to negotiate."

Naruto-sama looked shaken, he whispered, "Miyuki tell me you're joking."

"Naruto-sensei, in the years we spent together was I ever the joking sort?" Miyuki asked.

Naruto shook his head slowly, "No, I guess you weren't. How long then?"

"I'm not a traitor if that's what you mean," Miyuki said, "I didn't join Orochimaru until after the war was over."

"The war isn't over, it will never be over until that murdering snake is dead!" Naruto said sharply.

Naomasa took a step back, he'd never seen the Hokage speak so harshly.

But there was outrage in Naruto's eyes, and, if Nao dared to believe it, hurt as well.

The Hokage was . . . hurt.

Nao felt sort of hurt too. He wasn't close to Miyuki, had probably said more to her just now than he had in all his previous acquaintance with her, but Hitomi . . .

Hitomi would be devastated if she found out.

Or she'd be mad. Mad enough to do something stupid and risky.

Miyuki shifted her weight from one leg to the other and that alone had every Konoha ninja nearby tense in preparation of an attack. She noticed and became very still and said, "Lord Orochimaru is most impressed with your ability . . . he wants you all to join him. He wanted Nara-senpai from the start, but he acknowledges the skill and worth of any ninja who can manage to elude capture for four long years, and many of you would be invaluable in training his-"

Nao was shaking, "How can you do this? How can you fight your Hokage, your Sensei-"

"Enough!" Naruto said sharply, "Everyone go. Leave me alone with Miyuki."

"Hokage-sama-" Shikamaru-sensei began but Naruto's eyes spoke volumes and Shikamaru-sensei backed down very quickly.

Nao was a little too angry to be shut up that easily and he was about to say more-though Yomiko had grabbed his wrist and was pulling him away with determination.

This woman, this _traitor_. Hitomi had spent years of her life just looking for this woman and her other friend, she'd spent _years_ that she _could have spent with him_.

And the result? She'd never stood a chance of finding either one of them. One had been imprisoned, tortured and the other one, _this_ one . . .

Shikamaru-sensei put a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Come on, the Hokage gave an order. Take some time to clear your head before you do something crazy."

Naomasa still needed to be mostly pulled by Yomiko before he moved.

* * *

Naruto watched everyone else leave.

Hinata was the last to walk away, and she seemed hesitant but she understood this was something Naruto needed to handle alone.

He wasn't in any danger, even if Miyuki tried to attack him she wouldn't be much of a threat; he knew her too well.

Or at least he used to.

When everyone was gone, Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled very slowly.

He looked at Miyuki, arms folded standing across from him in the woods of a Fire country forest.

He smiled in spite of himself; he could almost pretend they were still student and sensei on a mission for Konoha or something.

But that wasn't the reality anymore.

He looked away and sat down on a tree stump.

He said, "Before we say anything else . . . I want you to know I'm sorry, Miyuki."

"Don't be silly, Sensei. This was almost a party compared to what I expected."

"No." Naruto said, "I'm sorry I was gone so long . . . maybe if I'd been here, if we'd attacked sooner you and I wouldn't be on opposite sides of this now."

"We don't have to be, Sensei. Join Lord Orochimaru." Miyuki said simply. "Things are . . . things are good. Frankly Sensei it isn't waiting so long before attacking that you should be apologizing for, it's attacking at all."

Naruto's hands became fists without even asking his brain's permission and he spoke through gritted teeth; "Things were good? Tell that to Hara!"

"I would if he were here. I'm sure _he _would listen to me." Miyuki shrugged.

"Do you have any idea-" Naruto broke off and shook his head. "Damn it, Miyuki-damn it! Orochimaru didn't send you to negotiate anything, he sent you to mock me. He sent you to piss me off and it worked fantastically."

"No Sensei!" Miyuki said sharply, "He did not! The God-Emperor wants the service of the qualified; further war wastes life and potential."

Naruto stood up, "You go back to the snake and tell him that two can play his game. Like Naomasa said, he burned our homes and sent us into hiding for four years; I will burn his hole and devote everything I have and everything I am to his destruction if it takes four centuries! He's no god, Miyuki, he's a mortal. He may take trickier killing than most, but he's still mortal and I'll prove it the next time I see him."

Miyuki clenched her fists too and shouted, "I've seen firsthand the difference in the land! While you and the rest of Konoha hid away I watched the change in the people! The Five distribute justice and give the people faith and hope, the shrines are a place of solace and reverence; perhaps you're right, perhaps the emperor isn't a god, never mind coming back from the dead and all, perhaps he is just mortal. So _what_? If his godhood and divinity makes people happy then so be it! If it lets others believe in a power greater than themselves and live in a world without fear or sin then so be it! I won't let you spit on things you don't understand, Sensei!"

"You're the one who doesn't understand, they've brainwashed you-"

"I'm not a cog!" Miyuki shouted, "I joined them willingly, Sensei! Look at the world you're attacking-yes our old way of life is gone; no more mercenary work, what a damned shame! No more assassinations for the highest bidders, no more exterminating ignorant men who think crime is their only option in life; and until _you _came back no more war!"

"Segregation, sexism-"

"There were classes and castes before, that isn't an invention of this regime! And yes, women aren't allowed to dress as men or serve in the regular military . . . so what? Look at me, I'm a _woman_ and I'm not upset! I _like _wearing dresses in public and knowing the only time I have to dress like _this _the rare event that my country needs me!"

"Experimentation!" Naruto exploded, "Cutting people's eyes out, attaching foreign arms to their bodies, conditioning them to attack their friends and loved ones on command!"

Miyuki scowled, "Don't be stupid, Sensei."

"Oh, you don't believe me?" Naruto growled, "You haven't seen what goes on in those serpent shrines then?"

"Don't be stupid!" Miyuki repeated, then with a bit less conviction she said, "I'm . . . a medic after all."

Naruto nearly fell back onto the stump.

"So you do know." He whispered.

"It's for the greater good!" Miyuki snapped, "A few suffer so that-"

"Go. Now." Naruto warned.

"No. Sensei, I'm here to make you understand-"

"Get out of this camp." Naruto said, his voice didn't even sound like his own. "Don't turn around, don't look back and don't you dare call me Sensei again. You're not the girl I trained, you're some sick perversion in her image." Naruto was shaking with rage, and he could feel the edges of his eyes moistening. "If you try to fight us we'll kill you. We'll kill every snake worshiping collaborator, no matter who they might have been once upon a time."

"Se-Naruto," Miyuki said, "You're not seeing reason! Kill anyone who resists? How is that a worthy-"

Naruto wasn't wholly aware of what he did next. In the blink of an eye he was two inches from Miyuki's face.

He didn't hit her, didn't touch her at all, but without even meaning to he'd closed the distance between them and he could see his own red chakra reflected in her eyes.

He fought hard to bring himself under control, and whispered harshly to her, "How could _you_, a girl with your _past _possibly do things like that? How could _you _tie some poor person down and cut into them? Remove parts of them, attach things, and claim you're doing good? How could someone smart as you not see that for what it is?"

Miyuki's breathing was irregular now, she said, "M-my past-what my uncle did and what I do-"

"Not much difference, is there? Not if you're honest with yourself. It's a violation, Miyuki. You're violating every person you operate on. You're doing to them what he did to you; you're making them helpless and doing what you want to with their bodies; you're taking away the last thing most of them have . . . and the girl I trained would never be able to ignore that . . . that's how I know you're not her."

"I . . . I make it painless, they don't feel anything!" Miyuki protested, tears rolling down her cheeks, "I'm not like . . . they're bad people, they deserve it!"

"Like _you_ deserved it?" Naruto scowled.

"It's not the same . . . I'm different, I'd never . . . I'm helping people."

"Like the people you operate on?" Naruto whispered. He turned his back on Miyuki and said, "Get out of my camp. Tell your master where we are if you want because we won't be here by the time your people arrive. But tell him not to worry . . . we're not hiding. Not anymore. Tell the snake we're coming for him and he'll see real power when he sees the conviction of free Shinobi fighting for a cause they believe in, instead of being forced by mind controllers and drugs and torture!"

"You can't win." Miyuki said, a sob in her voice, "Why can't you see that?"

Naruto couldn't stand to turn around and look at her. He just said, "Even if we can't, Orochimaru is an evil I can't leave unopposed. If you really believe in his cause then . . . then so be it . . . when I see you again it'll be the last time for one of us."

He heard her begin to walk away, and the Hokage's heart began to ache.

He didn't know what he hoped to accomplish when he said what he said next-maybe he wanted her to renounce Orochimaru and join him, maybe he just wanted to make her hurt inside as badly as he hurt just then.

But he said, "Hitomi saw the new world firsthand too, like Naomasa said she spent four years touring it looking for you and Hara. We found Hara, Miyuki. We found him in Waves. He doesn't even remember his own name and he's so deeply conditioned that we can't trust him. Hitomi's trying to rehabilitate him after years of experimentation. Years that cost him an eye, mutilated his arm and I'd give my own arm to see him the way he was again but I don't think he'll ever be the same. Was Hara a bad person, Miyuki? Did he deserve it?"

Whatever the answer Naruto's subconscious had hoped for before throwing that out there, he didn't get it. Miyuki didn't say a word, she just walked away.

Naruto staggered to the stump he'd sat on and collapsed onto it, devoid of his strength for a moment.

Hinata and Neji were by his side in an instant. "Hokage-sama, what do you want us to-" Neji began but Naruto held up a hand and silenced him.

"I just . . . need to be alone for a minute." He whispered as tears rolled down his cheeks too.

Now he knew he'd failed _all_ of his Genin.

* * *

Miyuki left the camp quietly, shaking a little as she went.

She was in a daze, her head was swimming and her legs were wobbly. Her emotions were conflicted, she didn't even know what to think or if she wanted to.

She sensed the two shinobi coming towards her, and everything in her head told her to get out of the way.

And she did try to, she was just a little slow about it.

One of them hit her hard in the back of the head and sent her to her knees. She grabbed a fistful of Miyuki's hair and pulled back, forcing her to look up at her.

"I don't care if the Hokage himself said you can just walk out of here," The unknown woman snarled, "you traitor snake lovers killed too many of my friends for me to let one of you slither off and tell your boss where we are."

The woman drew a kunai and smiled, "I'm going to make sure you never tell anyone anything ever again."

"Easy, you said you were just going to rough her up." Her male companion mumbled.

"Oh hell, you know I never stick to the plan." The woman laughed, raising her fist into the air.

"I'd abort the plan all together if I were you." A new voice said.

Miyuki's eyes followed the sound of it to see Ishida standing, hands hovering over kunai holsters.

"She's a traitor." The woman scoffed.

"Yeah, I know." Ishida grumbled.

"So keep your mouth shut and be on your merry." The man warned.

"You think you know better than the Hokage then?" Ishida demanded. "He's back at the camp, we can ask him."

The woman seemed to hesitate. She tried again, "She's a traitor."

"Yeah, I know." Ishida repeated. "She's also been let go by our Hokage, and seeing as he ordered me to make sure she got well out of our camp I don't think her disappearance or mine would sit too well with him."

Miyuki saw doubt in the woman's eyes, and she had to mimic the emotion. There was no way Naruto-sensei had ordered Ishida to watch her leave, he'd done that on his own.

She didn't know why, she didn't care either, what mattered was whether or not the woman holding her bought it.

The woman's brown eyes were ablaze and her lip curled in a snarl, she tightened her grip on Miyuki's hair . . .

But she suddenly let go, shoving Miyuki away.

"Fine. Let her go warn her buddies that we're coming. But if I see her again I'm going to kill her."

_Second person to tell me that today. _Miyuki reflected.

The two Konoha shinobi retreated, Ishida walked over to her.

He hesitated for a long time before offering her his hand, and she hesitated a long time before taking it.

"People like that and you think you're the good guys." Miyuki mumbled.

"Everyone's got their light and dark. Those two have lost friends, so have I. Can you honestly say no one on your side would have done something similar?"

Miyuki couldn't. But it was easier to feel like she'd been wronged, to feel like those two Konoha shinobi had justified everything she'd tried to make Naruto-sensei understand.

She shook her head, "So why did you help me? Because of Hitomi?"

"Yes." Ishida said simply. "I don't know what I'm going to tell her . . . if I ever see her again . . . I don't imagine she'll want to hear that her best friend is a traitor working for Sound."

Miyuki's gaze hardened, "None of you have any idea! If I didn't do it someone else would; someone less gentle. It's _not _the same, I'm not-not-they're not _aware_ when I cut into them! I don't hold them down screaming and sully them and tell them they should like it! I don't hurt them and tell them _they're _the dirty ones, I'm not like him! I _do _help people, and the ones I work on-well they must have done something or they wouldn't be there getting worked on!"

Ishida seemed taken aback, he raised his hands as if in surrender and said, "I'm not even really sure what you mean and I still feel like it's way more than I needed to know."

Miyuki felt embarrassed. Naruto-sensei wasn't even there and she was still trying to justify-no, trying to _explain _herself to him. That Ishida was the one she'd said it to didn't really seem to matter; it had to be said.

She wasn't like her uncle.

She was . . . a good person . . .

Wasn't she?

She wiped tears from her eyes and took a couple of steps away before realizing there was another reason she'd wanted to go on this mission.

She reached into her pocket and turned to Ishida, surprised to see a girl standing nearby-he hadn't come alone.

Miyuki pulled the old, battered envelope from her pocket. She held it out to him and said, "Before you go, I have something I want you to take, Ishida."

"A message for Naruto-sama?" Ishida asked.

"No . . . it's not from the God-Emperor, and its contents are the business of just one person; there's no need for security to go over it."

"What makes you think I want anything from a traitor?" Nao failed to hold back his spite.

Miyuki flinched a bit, for some reason now that word hurt . . . she wasn't a traitor, she'd been loyal to Konoha but Konoha didn't exist anymore.

She said in a shaky voice, "I don't care what you want, it's not for you. It's for . . . it's for Hitomi-chan. It's something she thought she lost a long time ago . . . but I found it for her, and I kept it for her. Now I want her to have it back. When you tell her about me . . . give her this. It's hers, and she deserves to have it back. Whatever she thinks of me, whatever you think of me, I know it's important to her."

"So why're you giving it to me?" Nao demanded.

"Because you love her enough to see that she gets it . . ." Miyuki hesitated, and then said, "and . . . at least when I knew her . . . she loved you enough that she'd accept it if you gave it to her."

Ishida seemed surprised, his companion seemed irritated, but Miyuki turned away least she lose any more of her composure.

She told herself she was right.

Naruto-sensei just didn't understand.

He'd never been a victim like she had so . . . so he didn't understand the difference; that was it. He didn't understand the God-Emperor's plans or know how much good the experiments did for people, he hadn't seen how wonderful society was now that it was under _control_.

Everything he'd said was a lie, or he'd said it out of anger . . . he didn't know, he didn't have any idea, and he'd refused to let her enlighten him. She'd tried, she'd hoped she could get through to him and stop the war, stop the pain but he was too consumed by darkness to accept the Emperor's light.

She was a good person.

Deep down . . . she just wanted to help people.

She'd forget his words . . . she'd go back to the temple, the place where she'd learned of the emperor's mercy and divinity.

She'd go to sleep in her room, she'd forget those words Naruto-sensei had spoken, she'd forget the feelings she was feeling.

She just hoped her Sensei lived long enough to realize how wrong he was . . . but she doubted he would.

* * *

In spite of himself Naomasa smirked as he pocketed the envelope Miyuki had given him for Hitomi.

"Tell me you're handing that over to Shikamaru-sensei." Yomiko said.

"No?" Nao offered.

"Excuse me?" Yomiko demanded.

"It's not for him, it's for Hitomi." Nao said with a shrug.

"You're just saying that because traitor-face said Hitomi loved you-and she wasn't even talking about romantically by the way-and anyway if you do give it to her for all you know it might hurt her, so give it to Sensei before I tell him you have it!"

"Tell me he has what?" Shikamaru-sensei asked.

Naomasa shrank a little, "Um . . ."

He wasn't going to lie to Shikamaru-sensei, but . . . well if the message was for Hitomi and only Hitomi . . .

But then what if Yomiko was right? What if it hurt her?

Or, Nao considered, what if it were a tracking device of some sort? Who could trust a traitor?

He frowned but Shikamaru-sensei seemed to grow bored of waiting for a response and instead tilted his head back towards the camp, "Hokage-sama's orders . . . we're moving out. We're bypassing the next town, seems Orochimaru expects us there if he's sending negotiators. We're going straight for our staging area instead."

"Weren't we supposed to fight our way there?" Nao asked, glad for the change of subject.

"And trash serpent shrines along the way." Shikamaru nodded, "But your sister's a fantastic judge of . . . well, chance really. We got enough information from the shrines we took that any fight we can avoid we're avoiding. Funny, for some reason Naruto-sama is suddenly very determined to go after Orochimaru directly."

"Good." Yomiko said, "There'll be time to deal with traitors after we kill the not-god."

Shikamaru-sensei offered them a slight smile and said, "Come on, there's about two hundred soldiers in that town who're going to be wondering where we are once Yamamoto tells them where our camp is . . . let's not be here when they come looking for us. That is of course unless Nao has anything to report . . ."

Nao frowned, "I . . . just . . . I got a message to pass on." He said with a frown.

"A message from the enemy," Yomiko clarified.

"I know, I caught that. I came looking for you when I noticed you two weren't where I left you. I don't know why you followed her, and I won't ask. But I did see her slip you that note, and I'm going to need you to hand it over. You've got my word that its contents wont be read by me or anyone else unless it's a legitimate threat."

Naomasa handed the message to his Sensei, feeling a little awkward about it; as if he'd been trusted with something important and had instantly failed that trust. "If you knew why did you ask?" Nao frowned.

"I wanted to see if you'd tell me; put simply I was curious to see whether or not your personal feelings for Hijiri might blind you to the dangers an item passed on from the enemy presented." Shikamaru-sensei said evenly. "I'll have our specialists check it for traps or any tracking Jutsu. You can still hand it intact to Hitomi if it really is just a message."

Nao hesitated, but he nodded. He trusted Shikamaru-sensei and . . . well it was a relief not to have to hide anything from him, and to know that if it were a trick of some sort the traitor wouldn't get away with it.

After all, Hitomi had already spent four years just trying to find that woman, the last thing she needed was to get a letter from her stuffed full of explosive tags or something.

He and Yomiko followed Shikamaru back to the quickly vanishing camp; he had to admit he understood why Naruto-sensei wasn't going to attack the next town.

The truth was leaving a fortified target alone was risky; if they'd been traveling with the army it would have been asking for trouble, an all ninja force had a chance at least of getting past without incident, even if the enemy knew they were in the area.

But Naomasa knew it wasn't about getting to Orochimaru any sooner; at least that wasn't all of it. It might be about saving numbers and not needing any more information from the shrines, but Nao doubted that too.

He was pretty sure Naruto-sama didn't want to go to that town and find his student there.

Who could blame him? Nao understood full well the bond between friends, between student and Sensei, even on opposite sides the mere idea of actually killing Kotaro made him feel ill.

He at least could take comfort in the knowledge that Kotaro wasn't acting of his own free will.

He felt sorry for Naruto-sama; he didn't have that now.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**A/N: **Surprise chapter! Thanks for all your support, everyone. And don't worry, I'm already reasonably deep into the next chapter, it should go up on time.


	71. Freedom of the Mind

**Chapter Sixty-Nine**

"Kotaro-kun," Lord Orochimaru said in a quiet voice as Kotaro prepared to enter the channeling chamber, "I want to share something with you."

"Yes?"

Lord Orochimaru smiled, "The Five . . . they have been a great disappointment to me. So far they're little more than Jounin level combatants . . . you, and they, are meant to be gods, not mortals. I have given you the means to fight without fear of dying and yet the results are mild at best. Why is this?"

Kotaro had no idea.

"I permit you to say what you truly think." Orochimaru said and somehow the blocks and dams in Kotaro's head cleared for just an instant.

He said, "Because none of us believe in you or your cause, not even Shiroi or Kasumi. We were all forced to join you or tricked. Look at each of us; Shiroi joined you because she wanted her child kept safe, Kasumi joined you in truth to try to destroy you, Kurai was forced by Shiroi and I was forced when you took my mother and father." He realized then, "My father . . . who-" but the mental wall closed off there.

"What about Yukio? He came willingly." Orochimaru said.

"A defeated soldier submitting to his enemy, it doesn't mean he believes in your cause. Most of the time we're wandering around in a stupor, how can you expect us to fight to our full potential? You keep us muddled and confused and . . ." Kotaro frowned, suddenly, as if he'd been punched inside of his own skull, his brain went soft.

Lord Orochimaru smiled, "I have had similar suspicions. That is why I decided to do away with the controllers you see . . . but how can I secure loyalty without them? How can I force you all to fight to your utmost and achieve my ends? You already see how peaceful and wonderful the world is under my regime, but you still don't believe?"

Orochimaru rested one hand against the channeling chamber and Kotaro knew that beneath the Genjutsu that was his mother's hand.

And even though she was mere inches from him she was still unreachable.

Orochimaru sighed, "I even gave you a wife, you don't seem to like her though. Perhaps you'd like someone else better?"

Kotaro frowned, "I don't know-"

"Oh but you do; don't you?" Orochimaru smiled sinisterly and held out one of the crystal balls of the Kage.

There was a girl in that sphere; tall with red hair . . . beautiful.

Kotaro recognized her without recognizing her, his eyes went wide and he sat up in the channeling chamber, "She's . . . what have you done with her?"

"Nothing lately," Orochimaru smiled, "but a few years ago I gave her a little present . . . about the same time I gave you yours."

Kotaro's neck burned and his hand went to his cursed seal.

He glared at the Emperor, his mind clear again.

"Perform this mission, Kotaro . . . do it to my expectations. There will be no one tagging along in your mind this time; when you betray your friend it will be through your own actions . . . and if you fail me, Kyoko becomes mine."

"You'd never take her, her sensei-"

"Won't be able to stop her. That cursed seal on her neck makes her more mine every time she uses it. I can _feel _her just as I can feel you whenever it's activated. You haven't had much occasion to use yours, but she . . . oh the dear girl just keeps fighting it back. She's kept it a secret and it hasn't been properly sealed, the poor dear."

Kotaro felt bad for Kyoko, suffering alone with a mark on her neck.

"War can be quite stressful for those fighting in their own bodies killing their own friends," Lord Orochimaru continued, "I can make it _very _stressful for her, put more pressure on the Suna forces, they won't be hard to find, I have her to guide me after all. Do you want to wake up one day and see your little girlfriend in a cell, experimented on by Kabuto?"

"I'd never let you." Kotaro warned.

"Perhaps not . . . suppose then that you don't wake up. Suppose I decide I've had enough and simply kill you? Not just you . . . but your team as well; all of the Sound Five executed because of the actions of just one. Suppose Shiroi and Kurai's son is executed simply because you looked at me wrong in the hallway? How would they feel? How would _you _feel?"

"You can't do . . ." Kotaro trialed off and shook his head, realizing how stupid the statement was before he finished it.

Orochimaru laughed with approval, "You understand, I _can _do. I can do _anything _to _anyone_, but most of all to you. So Kotaro, you will show the world and me what the Five are truly capable of tonight . . . or I will do away with the Five, despite Kabuto's protests."

"Why everyone? They haven't done anything!" Kotaro said.

"Yukio thinks he's a double agent when he's in control enough to think at all, and he's alive now only because I have my own plans for him. Kurai is talented but useless to me if even the lives of his wife and son aren't enough to warrant a dedicated effort. Shiroi is just loyal enough to kill herself if I told her to, and Kasumi . . . well Kasumi was kept alive specifically to breed, be it with you or a random donor I don't care. Kabuto might just get frustrated and do the job himself; he wants those eyes replicated sooner rather than later. He wants to study their growth in the womb and development through life . . . but he'd be content with a pair in a jar, I'm sure."

"You'd kill them if I slip up?" Kotaro growled.

"As I'll kill you if they slip up in the future. From now on if one of you fails me you all fail me and you will all be punished. When you have so little that is truly yours how much can I take before I take all your lives? How many times can you risk displeasing me now? You've been gently kept all this time; Kabuto's pets. I am _not _Kabuto, nor is he Orochimaru. There is _one _Orochimaru; and that is me."

The Emperor smiled and folded his arms, looking down on Kotaro with sheer unbridled superiority. "_I_ kept you for one reason; so that you could bring me Sasuke. You have failed, and you've made fools of yourselves _and_ you admitted to me now that it is because none of you feel motivated to really try . . . well Kotaro-kun, the gloves are off. I am giving you this opportunity to motivate yourself to try." The Emperor smiled a friendly smile despite his dire threats.

"For every victory you will receive real reward, something _you _yourself actually _want_, be it my promise to spare a friend in the future, or a few moments to speak to your dear old mother. Challenges and rewards, no controllers for you, no one to tamper. It's a new system . . . if it fails to yield results I'll kill you and the rest of the Five, your mother will be broken in her own mind and never restored to herself. Do it for Kyoko, for your teammates . . . for your own life. Bring Kabuto the Ishida clan, bring me victory and do it as Kotaro himself, without anyone to tamper or observe."

The emperor smiled sinisterly as Kotaro was forced to lay down in the channeling chamber by the closing lid.

Like a coffin sealing him in the grave.

"Every betrayal you commit tonight will be your own and on your head, Kotaro-kun. So be smart, don't betray _me_."

* * *

Kasumi laughed and captured another of Shiroi's shogi pieces, "What? Of course we haven't!"

Shiroi raised an eyebrow as she gently removed another of her pieces from little Saizo's hands before he had an opportunity to put it into his mouth, "Um . . . yeah, Kasumi that's not _normal_."

"What?" Kasumi frowned.

"You're _married_, you're supposed to consummate it!"

"But I don't want to." Kasumi shrugged. "He doesn't want to either, so why do it? I don't even remember getting married, I think you're all just messing with us or something."

Shiroi frowned, "Lord Orochimaru said you two are married; that kind of makes it so."

"I won't argue that," Kasumi admitted, "but if that's the case it doesn't mean we have to like it. Besides, I seem to recall someone else in my life."

"Having an affair? Already? What is this, your first month of marriage?" Shiroi laughed.

"It feels more like the first week . . . maybe like the second or third _day_, actually . . . it's hard to tell time." Kasumi admitted.

Shiroi shrugged. She knew the feeling.

"So who is the man that's ballsy enough to steal you from the First? It's not Yukio is it?"

"You'd think it would be since I hardly ever see anyone else, right? But no . . . I quite firmly recall the name . . . Masaru." Kasumi smiled, "I'm sure that's who it is; I just have trouble remembering . . . like everything else."

Shiroi laughed, and said, "You know . . . I kind of remember that name too . . . now that I think of it I . . ."

She coughed suddenly, the air was getting thick-it had a tendency to do that.

Saizo coughed and the bugs in his body began to react; Shiroi raised an eyebrow.

Was there something in the air? Some pollutant? Pollen maybe?

Her son couldn't be allergic . . . no good ninja was _allergic_, and even if Shiroi didn't plan on forcing the ninja life on her son she wanted it to be an option at least.

But as the insects went about doing whatever it was they were doing Shiroi did find the air getting better.

She frowned at the vent and made a mental note to talk to Lord Orochimaru about it; there might be something in there.

But then, why would Saizo's bugs react if Kurai's never did?

* * *

Kabuto was pacing back and forth. Normally experimentation earned his full attention but he just wasn't feeling it today.

Ishida Eri lay strapped to the table unconscious as she had for the past half hour and he'd yet to actually do anything to her.

There were tests he wanted to run, samples he wanted to take but in his current state he didn't trust himself not to inadvertently kill her.

Things looked bad but Orochimaru was totally relaxed.

He seemed convinced that getting Sasuke would be enough to win and reports out of the Lightning border were good but no news had come from Waves, or from Wind.

Kabuto wanted to preoccupy himself with just collecting the Ishida clan and working his wonders on them; but he was troubled.

Did Lord Orochimaru even care that their empire could be toppled in a manner of days?

He'd thought when he laid the foundations that because he was part of Lord Orochimaru he was doing his lord's will.

Had it really been just his own?

Perhaps . . .

But he liked the world the way it was; quiet and orderly with a steady supply of test subjects; who could want more than that?

He'd noticed he'd begun talking out loud, though the helpless Ishida Eri didn't respond; unconscious people tended not to.

"He's back and forth really; he says the war is under control then we get reports of a major defeat; or no reports at all. He says Uchiha is all that matters, then he agrees that we should send Kotaro to get the Ishida elders."

Kabuto shook his head, rhythmically tapping his scalpel against the operating table, "I spent years building this empire, preaching this gospel and gaining followers, I engineered an entire war but now that I have the prize it isn't even completely mine, and I don't care as long as I can serve my master . . . we did away with the controllers, keeping just one to monitor the Five and work the gas, but Kasumi isn't getting pregnant on her own, without controllers we'd have to do it artificially . . . would that work?"

Kabuto grumbled and eyed Eri, "Maybe I'll test it out on you first . . . no, no, I don't plan to keep you alive long enough to see any results. One of your sisters maybe, or some random woman from the streets . . . not you. No, you'll know the sweet embrace of death soon enough, once I get my answers from you."

Kabuto forced himself to steady and laughed, "I'll miss our little chats, Ishida."

He was just about calm enough to go to work when a knock on the door cut through that delicate concentration.

He growled, "You all know better than to interrupt me when I'm working!" He snarled but the door opened and one of his aides rushed in, bowing.

"My lord, Yamanaka has just reported; he attempted to gas Shiroi and Kasumi, it was ineffective."

Kabuto's eyes went wild, but he kept his body motionless as if he were still at ease.

"What do you mean ineffective? Are they becoming immune?"

"He doesn't think so, sir. They took in some of it and it seemed effective, but then showed no signs of being properly dosed. Yamanaka says that while observing Shiroi's mind he found that her child's insects had acted oddly about the time he ordered the gassing; he said you would want to know."

Kabuto nodded, glad they'd kept at least one Yamanaka alive after all.

"Bring me the child then, right to this room; I'll work on him immediately."

"Yes Lord. Should I send someone for Ishida?"

"Hmm? No. I haven't done anything with her yet; but the child is more pressing. We'll keep her here and just put her under if she recovers before I've had my time to experiment."

"Yes lord."

Kabuto gently patted Eri's shoulder as his aid rushed away and said, "That reminds me, that boyfriend of yours; Oedo? He keeps trying to find out what happened to you, he's even offered to serve in my medical corps if I release you. I'll need you to write a letter or something telling him you're all right. Remind me later, hmm?"

Of course Ishida Eri didn't respond.

* * *

It was dark by the time Kotaro arrived in the village hidden in Mist, carried by a simple rowboat the submersible had launched some distance away from the island.

They probably got it after the sea battle because Kotaro didn't remember the submersible having its own boats.

He looked at the darkened city, it was quite big and was probably a lovely place in the daylight but Kotaro wasn't there for scenery. He had his mission.

His head was swimming, he was . . . himself. He wasn't used to that.

Usually there were things in his head he couldn't recall, a second voice to correct him and berate him for thinking ill of the Emperor . . .

But Kotaro was in control.

And he knew he had to make it all work. If he failed he wasn't the only one to pay the price.

He hated Orochimaru, he hated what was being done to him.

But he'd get the job done.

Kidnap two people . . . he was still exploring his mind, trying to figure out why these two people might matter at all to him-let alone to the Emperor but it'd been so long all he knew was that their family name was familiar, he probably knew them.

So they probably knew him too. He'd have to use force to subdue them . . . he'd have to hurt people he might have liked once upon a time.

He leapt from the

A man approached him, a man who had better be the spy if he wanted to live to see the city in the sunlight again. Kotaro prepared himself to kill this stranger, but the man quickly spoke the password and Kotaro relaxed a bit.

"Welcome to Kirigakure, agent." The spy greeted.

"Surprisingly peaceful landing." Kotaro said.

"We paid off one of the city's remaining Chuunin, he forged some orders for the sensors. They think you're just someone from the exile village coming here to give a report, that's why they didn't massacre you." The spy said, "They're just Genin and a couple Chuunin, the real warriors went with the Mizukage, but there's quite a few of them."

"Fine. You know why I'm here?"

"I was just told to be ready to meet an agent and to keep this beach free of sensor-nin." The spy shrugged.

Kotaro's mood darkened further when he heard himself ask, "Where is the exile village?"

"I dunno. Every shinobi has heard aboutit, but only a few of the high ranking Jounin know the location. This isn't new, the Emperor's gotten my report on that and my inability to find it out."

Kotaro folded his arms and said, "Anyone left in the city who'd know?"

"What do you mean?" The spy asked.

"The Emperor himself gave me my mission; he also said to eliminate targets of opportunity . . . if the Mist village is empty of anyone actually worthy of defending it I can only imagine what the exiles might have left behind." He swallowed what might have been bile and said, "Whatever I can do to end this war sooner, I'm going to do it."

The spy frowned, "I didn't say they didn't have anyone worthy of defending the city, sir . . . they do have a couple of upper tier Jounin and if anyone's going to have the information you want it'll be them."

"I'll complete my mission in under an hour, after that I want to know where they'll be." Kotaro said.

"Are you serious?" The spy whispered, "I'm just a spy! I cant order Jounin let alone city defenders, do you have any idea the sort of trouble I'll be in if I get-"

"I am Hatake Kotaro, First among the Five. I am the heir of the God-Emperor's soul. Do you really think I _can _fail against minor Jounin? Do you have any idea what I'll do to you if you refuse my order? Besides who would know you were involved? Do as I've said," Kotaro barked, taking the scroll, "The Emperor wouldn't have sent me if a mere abduction was all he wanted done."

The spy nodded and ran off as if he were afraid for his life.

And Kotaro supposed he should be. Kotaro was certainly afraid for his own life.

But here he was; he doubted the Emperor had been honest about not observing him, he didn't know what Orochimaru's people had done in his head but having full reign of it again even if only for a moment he was sure of one thing.

They'd do anything.

That meant he too, needed to be willing to do anything.

Kotaro read the scroll and readied the two he had at his hip; the two reverse summoning scrolls that had been hastily prepared by the crew of the submersible. He hoped they worked properly, he doubted there was anything above a Chuunin on that boat.

He would force the Ishida family to summon themselves to the capital city, then he'd see about these Jounin who might know the location of the village hidden in exile.

Kotaro had this one opportunity, an opportunity no one else had had to capture a Jounin from Mist; he could find out all sorts of things.

Even if he didn't want to.

He didn't want Orochimaru to win the war, but now his hands were tied.

Or were they?

He considered simply not acting.

Letting Orochimaru execute him and the rest, it only weakened Orochimaru really.

But what if it didn't?

He leapt from rooftop to rooftop with perfect ease and silence until he came to the Ishida residence.

It was a rather attractive mansion; he supposed that was what wealth did for people.

In the back of his mind he also felt like he wanted to live in a mansion someday, a place with lots of rooms so he'd have lots of places to hide in case his mom came over to visit and ask him why he hadn't kept the place clean.

He smiled slightly; it was a fantasy that he just couldn't picture, but it'd also come so naturally . . .

He really was in control again.

But it didn't make him happy.

He frowned; how would he get the Ishida family out?

He felt sick when he realized what he'd do.

But he had to do it . . .

He hopped down from the roof; they had no guards. A trusting pair . . . well maybe they just didn't need guards, they were just merchants . . .

He walked up to the door and Hatake Kotaro simply knocked.

It was a moment before a very tidy looking man dressed in red and white appeared to answer it; the Ishida family crest emblazoned on his left breast and both shoulders though Kotaro took a moment to realize why the crest was familiar.

He knew an Ishida.

That was what Orochimaru had meant when he said every betrayal would be Kotaro's own tonight.

Kotaro nodded politely to the man, who did not match the picture of Mr. Ishida in Kotaro's scroll. He said, "Are Lord and Lady Ishida in?"

The man, likely a butler asked, "Whom may I ask is calling?"

Kotaro felt a little more sick when he said, "Someone who knew their son."

"Do you have an appointment?" The butler asked.

"Of course not; but it stands to reason that anyone here this late at night isn't just dropping by to be social doesn't it?" Kotaro scoffed, irritated at the very question; he was a ninja if he wanted to get in he could go in through a window.

The butler gestured for him to enter and said, "Do wait right here then and I will ask if they will see you."

"I'll be seeing them one way or the other, it's just up to them how hard they make it for me." Kotaro commented darkly, perhaps his subconscious's way of giving a warning.

But the butler didn't hear him, and didn't move off with any sense of urgency.

So Kotaro waited in the greeting room of the mansion deciding he'd have a mansion someday . . . but probably not a butler.

No, he'd have a maid . . . several maids . . . in skimpy outfits.

A part of him thought that despite everything . . . it was kind of nice to have his own mind to himself again.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	72. Heresy

**Chapter Seventy**

Kotaro waited just a little impatiently until a vaguely familiar man entered the room with the butler.

"This is he, Ishida-sama." The butler gestured to Kotaro.

The man, who matched the picture of Nagahide Ishida nodded and stepped into the room.

Kotaro considered his next move carefully.

Nagahide was tall and had long hair tied in a pony tail going over his left shoulder. He wore a red dress shirt and expensive looking white pants. Kotaro supposed the man probably usually wore the white and red Ishida clan jacket, though how he recalled its existence was a mystery to him.

He supposed he must have seen one at some point . . . maybe on this man himself; Kotaro was fairly certain they'd met before.

He had a thick mustache but thin eyebrows, and Kotaro noted that he walked with a slight limp. The ninja in Kotaro logged that away in the event he needed to subdue the man by force; a physical weakness due to age or past injury was always good to note.

Nagahide eyed Kotaro and said, "You wanted to see me. Here I am. You say you knew my son?"

"Yes sir." Kotaro nodded. "Is your wife here?"

"What do you mean 'knew' my son? Do you not know him anymore or has something-"

"I haven't seen him since Konoha fell." Kotaro answered, and for all he knew he was being honest.

Nagahide seemed a little relieved and he said, "So what is it you want from me?"

"Is your wife here?" Kotaro repeated.

"What do you want from her?" Nagahide asked, clasping his hands behind his back.

"I need to discuss a rather important matter with the both of you . . . it involves your children."

"The ones in exile?" Nagahide asked.

"All your children." Kotaro said with a slight shrug.

Nagahide frowned and gestured for Kotaro to follow him.

They walked through a spacious hall decorated with rather nice paintings.

Kotaro liked them anyway. Mostly they were of landscapes, he didn't get to see a lot of landscapes . . . he just saw the palace.

He thought about the palace . . . so dark and cold. This mansion was a lot like that; it was big and mostly empty and despite having a much brighter color scheme it felt very cold.

Not the same cold he felt in Orochimaru's palace; that was a crawling in his skin feeling of discomfort.

This place was just . . . dreary. As if there were no real joy in it, and with half the family in exile or in the enemy's city he supposed there'd be little reason for joy.

Kotaro was led into a large sitting room where the woman who matched the picture of Ishida Atsuko sat looking up at them with an open book in her lap.

She said, "Oh . . . it's him?" Then she seemed embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound-I'm sorry. It's just, I didn't expect a ninja."

"You know him?" Nagahide asked in surprise.

"Of course dear, so do you. He's Nao-chan's teammate, or squad mate or whatever ninja call each other. Remember? He helped escort us to the Land of Waves four years ago."

"Oh . . . yes, you wore a mask back then." Nagahide said, looking embarrassed. "Why didn't you tell me you were one of Nao's comrades?"

But Kotaro raised a hand and said, "I didn't expect you to remember me," and it was true, he hadn't.

He might have free rein of his mind but sorting through years of memories left unused was tricky.

"It's your eyes." Mrs. Ishida said in a kindly tone, "You have very expressive eyes."

"Do I?" Kotaro wondered aloud. Then he remembered that he was there for a reason.

"Listen," Nao's father said, "if you're looking for Naomasa then believe me, we really don't have any idea where he is. If the rumors are true and there's fighting on the mainland then that might be the best place to look for him; I don't think my son would just sit it out."

_I don't doubt that_. Kotaro thought. But he said, "Actually sir I'm here because of all of your children. You're needed by your daughters . . . you and your wife."

"What do you mean?" Nagahide asked.

Kotaro hesitated. How would he do this?

He didn't want to have to take them by force, partially because he wasn't sure what he might do to them.

He frowned and said, "The truth is that most of your daughters have been brought to the Emperor's palace. The only way you can be of any help to them is to go there yourselves as well. Naomasa is probably already on his way also."

Nagahide folded his arms, "And what exactly would we be doing in the palace?"

"I am not sure." Kotaro admitted, then felt compelled to say, "Probably nothing pleasant. But your daughters are already there and whatever the Emperor has planned for you he's already doing it to them."

Nagahide's eyes narrowed, "And why are you telling us this?"

"There's no point lying about it." Kotaro shrugged. "You need to go to the Emperor's palace, I've been ordered to bring you there. I have other things to do before the night is over so I want to spare you any lies and trickery."

Kotaro produced the reverse summoning scrolls and said "If you want to be of any use to your daughters you need to use these . . . I won't promise that you can save them, I won't even suggest that you can . . . but I am sure that things will be worse for them if you don't."

Nagahide frowned and laughed bitterly.

"In the old days . . . I could have hired a ninja to rescue my daughters from any danger they might have been in. I guess you don't always appreciate things until you don't have them."

Kotaro shrugged, "It's true you could have done that in the old days . . . but there's a lot of people for whom that wasn't an option even back then so really what's different about the world?"

Nagahide took the scroll and looked at it. He said, "So you think doing away with ninja was the right thing then? That it evens the playing field now that _nobody _can hire them?"

Kotaro frowned. He said, "I think ninja are the lifeblood of our world. Without them the world's gotten dark and dreary, and as they rush to war many of them will die and the world will get that much drearier. The armies of Lightning were set to march against the capital city for ages and the Emperor was prepared to repel them for ages; I have no idea why Lightning chose to attack _now_, I can only assume it was because the ninja told them it was time . . . but the thing is between Lightning, Earth and Sound I can only imagine how many men died and how many women are now widows with no means to support themselves."

"Well now that they can't work . . ." Nagahide scoffed.

"Indeed." Kotaro shrugged. "But it isn't just about supporting themselves; it's the sons and husbands they've lost. The wouldn't have lost them if the conscript armies didn't exist . . . or would they have? Would those men have died anyway if nothing had changed? What makes a world ruled by ninja any better than a world without them? Even if you could hire ninja so could all the immoral men who might do so seedier purposes."

"At least it'd be better than living in some falsely perfect dream world that totes a false faith and false moral code." Nagahide said evenly.

"I acknowledge the idea of a totally moral sinless nation has it's appeal even if it's not really practical. A world where women dress a certain way and men are moral and upright is all well and good but morality is in the eye of the beholder."

"Is it?" Nagahide asked.

"Yes." Kotaro said simply, "For example is it moral to put yourselves in danger to _possibly _save your daughters, or is it immoral?"

"How could it possibly be immoral to try to save our girls?" Atsuko demanded.

"They're adults; they should be prepared and capable of saving themselves. If not, what can you do that they can't do? What good would you do except to worry them with your presence? At least here, safe, they can know that you're not going through what they are." Kotaro shrugged.

"Do you want us to go or not?" Nagahide asked.

"What I want doesn't matter." Kotaro shrugged, "My point is that in a world with ninja the countless men who've died in the past few days probably wouldn't have been in the fight to begin with. I think war is better left to an elite and select few, and I feel that those few should be carefully selected and mentally conditioned so that none of them ever begin to abuse their power."

Kotaro hesitated, then blurted, "I think the Emperor is right, there should be fewer ninja in the world . . . but he's also wrong, conscripted armies shouldn't exist at all in a world where ninja do. I think that the morality of any given group of people is theirs to decide and that military might shouldn't be used to enforce it on their neighbors. It's wrong for the Emperor to control everything the way he does, but it's also wrong for the ninja to attack and throw the world into chaos just to reclaim their way of life."

Kotaro frowned, he said, "Nobody has the answers and I don't feel like I'm the man to try to find them. That said I'm a ninja. I have my duties and I can't fail . . . so you need to be taken to the Emperor. Morality has nothing to do with it, desire has nothing to do with it. It is a fact that you will be sent or I will die; and morality and desire aside it is one of the most basic of human instincts not to let one's self die."

Nagahide smiled slightly and said, "My morality says that going, even if it's just to see my girls one more time before I die, is acceptable. That it saves your life is just a consequence, good or bad I don't know. But I'll go to my girls and if the worst should happen I'll know that like you, my son is a ninja and he'll carry on our bloodline as well as visit vengeance upon the Emperor if so much as a hair is harmed on the head of any one of his sisters."

Kotaro shrugged, "I admire your conviction." He said, and spoke the command that activated the scrolls, transporting the Ishida elders to the summoning chamber in the palace.

They had gone without a fight, and Kotaro wasn't sure how he felt about that. He felt like he'd done the right thing not having to hurt them, but he felt low for sending them to the people that would, even if he'd sort of told them not to expect a welcome mat and even if he didn't know for sure what was going to happen to them he knew just from what had and was continuing to happen to _him _that it wouldn't be pleasant.

He left their mansion without another sound.

He would find the spy again and force the location of the Exiled village from whoever might know of it.

And then . . . well Kotaro didn't want to think about what happened then.

But he suspected it wouldn't fit his own moral code if he ever managed to rediscover it.

* * *

Miyuki's head throbbed when she woke up the next morning and was rushed from her quarters down into the subterranean labs.

The ninja army was right on their doorstep, she'd _seen _their camp and still everyone acted as if everything were normal.

As if Naruto-sama weren't about to rain hell down on the village this shrine protected.

Miyuki coughed, as she always did, at the heavy cigarette smoke in the waiting room.

Most of the medics smoked; she supposed it helped them calm their nerves and relax, and she supposed that was good.

But she hated the smell of it.

"Miyuki-chan," One of the priestesses smiled, "how was your personal day?"

"My what?" Miyuki asked.

"Did you think we wouldn't notice you just disappearing for an entire day? Sure you got people to cover your chores but the essence and vitality that you bring us with your mere presence was lacking." The priestess said, which Miyuki figured was just another way of saying that the sensors hadn't noticed her chakra, which wasn't that unusual since she was good at hiding it.

"Visiting the barracks?" The priestess questioned, but her tone was good-natured. "Most of our little ladies do. Someone special, hmm? I trust it won't affect your work for the God-Emperor."

"Not at all." Miyuki said.

"That's good. Especially since we received word just today . . . it seems the God-Emperor has taken notice of you, Yamamoto Miyuki-chan."

Miyuki's heart stopped.

Did they know what she'd done? How could they know so soon?

True the God-Emperor was supposed to know all and see all, and her lying about being his messenger was pretty much the sort of thing to bring down his wrath but she'd thought that because her intentions were pure-to bring about a peaceful resolution to the war-she wouldn't be punished.

Was this because she'd failed then?

But how would word have arrived so soon?

The priestess smiled and said, "Tomorrow you'll be leaving for the capital to work on the unfaithful subjects there. The Labyrinth is a big assignment, I'm very proud of you."

"Thank you . . ." Miyuki said hesitantly.

"To think, you came to us such an unclean creature, believing in all sorts of Konoha's lies, but now you're going to be in the palace of the God-Emperor himself."

"It is amazing that he would accept one as unworthy as me . . ." Miyuki admitted, "But am I truly qualified to go?"

The priestesses' smile faltered a bit and she said, "Oh Miyuki, I know that your physical impurity can never be atoned for but remember it is heresy to question the God-Emperor's mandates. Clearly your skill and spiritual devotion are enough for him to invite you to the palace and I trust you will put in a few good words for the rest of us as well."

"Of course . . ." Miyuki said, and quickly broke away and headed down the hall.

One last day with the subjects she'd spent so much time with over the years since her rehabilitation.

And something ate at her.

She came into her regular work room and read the chart.

"Ah, Mrs. Tanaka . . . you've gotten most of your color back." Miyuki said with forced cheerfulness.

The woman said nothing, she stared blankly at the ceiling as she lay on the operating table.

She wasn't strapped down yet, but she knew better than to try to resist or escape.

Miyuki went about securing the woman's arms and legs to the table and set her clipboard aside.

She hesitated, then asked, "I'm curious Tanaka-san . . . you see I have just learned that I will be going to serve the God-Emperor directly-or as directly as anyone of my station can-in his palace . . . but I've done things . . . terrible things. I've gone against his wisdom, and I've told lies that profane his name . . . and it causes me to wonder . . ."

Mrs. Tanaka looked off into space as if she couldn't hear Miyuki, but the younger woman knew that this particular test subject was capable of coherency despite being infected with a few diseases-most of them now curable-and having an organ or two experimentally removed or reduced.

Still if felt like Miyuki might have had just as much interaction if she'd begun her sentence with, "hello, wall" and carried on talking to her own shadow.

Still she had to ask.

Because she just didn't know anymore . . .

She said, "Did you volunteer to be worked on, Mrs. Tanaka?"

The woman's eyes seemed to waver into confusion and slowly she shook her head.

Miyuki frowned and recovered her clipboard before asking, "Did you commit some crime?"

Mrs. Tanaka shook her head again.

Miyuki frowned. What she was doing; asking patients about their reasons for being in the shrines was pure heresy.

But she needed to know . . .

If Hara could be experimented on . . .

Why?

Could an innocent person really be send to the shrine?

That would make everything she'd come to believe in a lie.

Her heart was pounding as if it meant to rip through her chest and Miyuki whispered, "Have you ever been adulterous, broken any law, harmed any person, done anything to warrant this existence, ma'am?"

The older woman laughed softly. Her voice was an unpleasant sound, it sounded to Miyuki as if the woman hadn't been given any water for quite some time and judging by her skin the young medic didn't doubt dehydration as a possibility.

Mrs. Tanaka whispered, "I wouldn't give myself to our village head. He told me . . . if I continued to refuse I'd end up here and he'd have my husband sent to the front . . . and take my daughter instead."

Miyuki frowned, "So you attacked him?"

The woman began to sob, and she said, "What I wouldn't trade for the chance. I came to the shrine because what he wanted was against the law, I petitioned for the chance to pray to Kasumi to use her magic to change the man's heart."

Miyuki nodded, that was the correct path to follow, alerting the shrine's staff that a public official was acting in an adulterous manner. But the test subject continued and said, "But the priest said to me, 'it is more wrong to defy the will of your social betters' and sent me away. The next thing I knew . . . my husband was transferred to a vanguard legion and my daughter was a maid in the governor's house and I-I was strapped to a table with a crazed bitch telling me that she was going to be running tests on me!" The woman shook her head and wailed, "Why are you asking me this? Why are you mocking me?"

Miyuki's eyes smoldered and she gripped her clipboard so tightly that it began to shake in her head. She said, "Why are you lying to me?" After all such a story had to be fiction; the people in the shrine wouldn't _do _that.

They'd never . . . Miyuki would never have let them if she'd known . . .

She looked away and hissed, "You're a liar, the God-Emperor's decrees would never be abused like that, and even if they were you must be a special case . . . perhaps your husband did something wrong and you were taken for that reason, and who's to say the governor is abusing your daughter if she's only a maid? That is of course assuming anything you've told me was true and I know it isn't!"

"Why would I lie?" The woman asked bitterly.

"I don't know." Miyuki said with a scowl, "Perhaps the next researcher you work with will be able to figure that out. I hope he's half as good to you as I was."

The woman snorted derisively, but Miyuki ignored her and slammed the clipboard down. She opened the door and shouted into the hall, "I'm done with this one. Please bring me one of my other projects."

And so her day went. Miyuki performed various tasks on over a hundred people whom she shared with the other medics; nobody was hers exclusively.

But one by one she brought in and asked each of her test twenty coherent subjects the same question: What had they done to be under her knife?

Without being drugged or gassed many of them still struggled to speak but not one outright refused to answer her and some answered her honestly; admitting that they had stolen, raped, murdered or fought against the God-Emperor four years ago.

But so many of them chose to lie to her.

To say they were just there because a great ancestor had been a shinobi, or because they had fallen behind on their debts and become homeless and this was where they were sent.

Claiming that they had offended a minor official in one way or another, one subject even dared to say that it was because space aliens had molested him and the Emperor wanted to harness his newfound super powers.

But even that obvious lie aside so many of the lies sounded . . . too real.

At least to the subjects . . . did they believe what they were saying? The day drew to its end and it was time to return to the Temple.

A part of Miyuki wondered why Naruto-sama hadn't attacked the village . . . was he just waiting for nightfall?

Or maybe the God-Emperor had protected them . . . was that reason enough to continue to believe in him and ignore the horrible things her test subjects had told her?

After all, they were test subjects . . . even if they didn't have any reason to lie they didn't have any reason to tell the truth and they might lie just to try to get out or out of spite against the woman who'd helped research them for so long . . .

Nothing they said could possibly be true . . . Miyuki would take the village's continued existence as proof of the Emperor's good will and love.

* * *

Hitomi cracked her knuckles and said, "I don't like this, Sasuke-sama. This is a Fire country village after all."

"It was. They're Sound trash now." Sasuke said. "Just keep your friend under control, the Mizukage wants this place leveled."

"Not the civilians, right?" Hitomi asked.

"Of course not, just the garrison. Look, Naruto-san's forces should have an easier time when they reach this place if we flatten it first, and Suigetsu was adamant that we hit this place."

"But why?" Hitomi asked.

"Well we're crossing Naruto-san's path, I guess this is Suigetsu's way of telling him so and saying 'look we're ahead of you' or something." Sasuke reasoned.

"Suppose Naruto-sensei already passed through here." Hara spoke up, much to Hitomi's surprise since Hara really didn't say much of anything, let alone suggest speculation.

"What do you mean?" Hitomi asked.

"Maybe he came through here already and didn't destroy the garrison." Hara said simply.

"What? Why wouldn't he?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"Because of the innocent people who might get hurt." Hara shrugged. "You just said yourself this village used to be Fire territory. If you don't feel right attacking it maybe he didn't either."

"No," Sasuke-sama shook his head, "We all know it's that twit Shikamaru who's really running the show and Shikamaru would never have let him leave an enemy stronghold intact, this place could be used to reinforce Konoha if we siege it. Besides the Serpent shrine is still intact too, Naruto would have hit that place harder than any other."

"So we level the garrison, kill the soldiers and burn the shrine?" Hitomi asked.

"What about the people in the shrine?" Hara asked.

"We're not burning the shrine, Suigetsu-_sama _wants it intact." Sasuke said, spitting the honorific.

Hitomi nodded, "See, Hara? Nobody innocent is going to get hurt tonight."

She said that, but she was pretty sure even Hara knew she wasn't being honest.

She knew Orochimaru's people would burn the shrine and everyone in it the minute it seemed like it was going to be captured.

The group of former rogue shinobi watched as the soldiers moved into position. On Taisho Ito's order the bowmen would let lose their explosive rounds and break down the walls and gates around the small town.

Hitomi saw there was a Serpent Temple build there as well, the place where the shrine workers were housed and trained.

That would have to go too, she'd have to make sure she attacked that place so the very people who had hurt Hara and burned her home city would know what it was like to have _their_ home taken away.

**To Be Continued . . .**

Hitomi and Hara have closed in on Miyuki's village even as she herself questions her allegiance. Will this be the reunion of Naruto's Genin, or will they be forced into a heart breaking conflict? Will Kotaro discover the Island? What else will he discover as he delves into the secrets hidden in Kirigakure? Find out on the next exciting episode of DRAGON BA-**wait **. . . no . . . that's not right . . . ah well, see ya next time.


	73. Emperor's Will

**Chapter Seventy One**

Miyuki felt uncomfortable as the long day of interviews drew to an end . . . it was dark and in the morning she would leave for the palace . . .

But she felt sick as she left the shrine and headed for the temple where she was housed.

She would go to sleep, forget everything and in morning she would go to the palace and serve.

But somehow . . . somehow she found herself in the governor's mansion.

She was dressed as a servant of the God-Emperor's shrine so attendants rushed to her immediately to inquire as to her purpose.

One of them was a maid . . . who looked too much like Mrs. Tanaka.

Miyuki shook a little as she ask the girl, "What is your name?"

The girl seemed scared, "Wh-why?"

"I am a servant of the God-Emperor's shrines," Miyuki snapped, "I have asked you a question and you will answer it, that is _all _you need to know."

Many of the other servants backed away, and Miyuki saw the governor hurrying down the stairs looking confused.

"Wh-what does the shrine require of me, madam?" The governor called out.

The maid whispered, "M-my family name is T-Tanaka."

Miyuki wasn't sure what had forced her to go to the governor's mansion.

But she knew exactly who was in control when she sprang into the air over the heads of the servants and knocked the katana out of the hands of the governor's samurai body guard.

Miyuki slammed the samurai into his master and both tumbled to the ground.

Miyuki's eyes were ablaze and she said, "Speak carefully because your life depends on what you tell me."

The man nodded.

Miyuki held the katana to his throat and stepped on the Samurai's throat, the warrior remained still probably feeling it was better not to fight back against a shrine official.

Still Miyuki kept her eyes scanning the place for any other threat; ninja skills even unused these many years died hard.

Miyuki whispered, "The maid, Tanaka . . . where is her father?"

The governor seemed confused for a moment, then said, "T-T-Tanaka-chan? I ordered her father to a vanguard legion-very prestigious position on the front-the last I was informed they were loaded aboard the ships meant to pacify the Land of Water, he'll no doubt return a Taisho!"

_More likely dead, so she might be here out of charity . . . _Miyuki thought to herself.

But somehow she thought of Hara and felt like she couldn't just let the man off so easily. She couldn't force herself to make excuses for him . . .

She spoke very carefully and asked, "Where is her mother?"

The man's eyes went wide with fear and it was the only answer Miyuki needed before she slammed the katana down on his throat.

The entire room went silent and the samurai began to struggle but Miyuki quickly snapped his neck.

She was seeing red, her brain was at war with itself.

A few more samurai drew their weapons and advanced on her but then the doors burst open and a soldier reported, "Attack! We're under attack! Soldiers and Shinobi, explosive arrows, the gate's already breached! We're under attack!"

Miyuki weighed her options. She might be able to reason with Naruto-sensei, offer her life for the lives in this village.

She threw the bloodied katana away and shouted, "This man's evil brought down divine vengeance on us all, this village lacks the God-Emperor's love and protection. We will stand down and let the Konoha rebels pass over us without struggle, take me to their leader and I will offer my-"

"It's not Konoha, it's Kiri! Kirigakure's ninja are attacking!" The soldier cried.

Miyuki just laughed bitterly as everyone scrambled to ready some sort of defense.

She looked down at the dead governor and spat on his body.

"Damn you. You made it all true . . . and now it's too late to matter." Miyuki scowled.

* * *

Kabuto was irritated.

"Lord Orochimaru, I wasn't able to detect why the boy's bugs fought off the mist but they did, and it made Shiroi and Kasumi aware that something unusual was going on. They don't know yet what we've done, but with just one controller left-"

"Observer, Kabuto-kun, he's only an observer now. I very specifically ordered him not to tamper, only to watch."

"But why?" Kabuto demanded.

Lord Orochimaru smiled and said, "Because as you know the proper way to control them is through leverage. Having them drugged half the time is no good. If they can't serve us under their own will and power they're no better than a cursed mongrel."

"The cursed mongrels did quite well in Waves." Kabuto said in protest.

Lord Orochimaru shook his head and said, "When I have Sasuke's body this war will be brought to a quick end, I assure you. For that I need your Five at the top of their game; if they can't manage that I will kill them."

Kabuto shook his head, "But Lord, I assembled these five-"

"With the best of intentions, yes. And then you spent four years drugging them and trying to pump their heads full of dogma, and it worked well in peacetime. However now we're at war with an enemy too dangerous to take lightly. These Five are masterfully trained, it's true. But that does little good if they cant control themselves, or if they're sympathizing with the enemy."

Kabuto frowned, "So what now?"

"So? So you want to keep your empire, do you not? I want Sasuke-kun's body. If you lose your kingdom overnight it complicates my own plans, does it not? So Kabuto-kun I have no choice but to take matters into my own hands and see that our enemies are stopped."

"That's good to hear," Kabuto said honestly, though the confirmation of his suspicion that Lord Orochimaru didn't really care if they Empire was overthrown was unwelcome.

Kabuto frowned, "But what has that got to do with the Controllers?"

"The Sound Five will each be interviewed by me, I have already handled Kotaro-kun. If he succeeds in his mission he'll be the proof that this new method works, and if he fails I do away with him."

"Lord Orochimaru, we chose to train quality over quantity in shinobi, if we do away with the Five we leave ourselves vulnerable."

"Kabuto look at our most successful agents; all of them are in control of their own minds and serve us willingly. If Kotaro-kun can't or won't we'll just do away with him and bring him back in a more compliant form."

"But how can you just force them to be loyal?"

"That child you worked on today, did you cut into him or harm even a hair on his head?" Orochimaru asked.

"No." Kabuto said, and then he understood, "Shiroi-chan and Kurai-kun would have been displeased if I caused their child harm. Of course if he weren't theirs I'd probably have acted more freely. I see your point, Lord."

"Yes. If necessary I'll just remind them how easy it is for us to harm their child and how little provocation it would take . . . and perhaps they don't _see _the boy unless they yield results. We may even separate them from each other. We will need to treat each of them differently of course, threats work better for some than others."

Kabuto smiled as if Orochimaru were a genius but he was worried.

Five highly trained ninja confined to the castle being forced into service without controllers around to make sure they didn't attempt insurrection?

Orochimaru was playing a dangerous game.

Just to be safe Kabuto would call Minoru Hikaru and a few others back to the capital. It'd remove his most trustworthy eyes in Iwagakure but at least they'd have something to use against the Five if they became unreliable.

Kabuto just hoped Lord Orochimaru knew what he was doing because he, Kabuto, had not spent years preparing an empire to have it all and then lose it in a manner of weeks as their every defense crumbled before the returning Shinobi.

He had zealots ready to kill themselves in his name, he had acolytes who understood that what he was doing was the right thing

And yet the Five, with the possible exception of Shiroi, weren't fully on board, hadn't really responded to mental conditioning even under Okatsu, the woman who'd turned a fat spoiled prince into a mindless killing machine.

He'd thought drugs and the Yamanaka clan was the answer, but could Orochimaru be right? Were threats really the better way to go?

Maybe for the moment, with shinobi armies pressing towards them. But how long could five of at least in theory the most dangerous shinobi in the world really be intimidated?

There was a knock on the door and one of the servants quickly opened it.

A nervous looking messenger rushed in and bowed low, he said, "I have news."

"What?" Kabuto asked calmly.

"The . . . our border stronghold is under attack, they've prayed for support from the Sound Five."

"Ah but Kotaro-kun is busy at the moment." Kabuto scowled, "We can't afford to lose this outpost."

"I disagree." Orochimaru said evenly, and Kabuto raised an eyebrow.

"Sire?"

"Do not dispatch the Sound Five. Let the outpost fall, order the shrine attendants to burn the shrine and the town and flee for the capital."

"Th-the town too?" The messenger asked in shock.

Orochimaru stretched out his hand and a serpent shot out and bit the man in the neck.

The unfortunate messenger fell to the ground in spasms, Orochimaru said to the servant who'd opened the door, "Go deliver my message for me."

The man rushed off, Kabuto frowned.

"Was that necessary?"

"No, but it made me feel good." Orochimaru smiled.

"Why are we letting the town burn?" Kabuto asked.

"Kabuto-kun, you're going to have to trust me." Orochimaru said simply, "I know what I'm doing."

Another messenger rushed in, saw the dead man on the floor and didn't hesitate.

"Lord Shogun, the Ishida patriarch and matriarch have arrived in the summoning chamber, and the fourth daughter is here also."

"Ah, you see Kabuto? Something to keep you entertained." Lord Orochimaru smiled, "Go on then, play with your new toys. Trust me, in good time you will understand why I allow this village to fall."

Kabuto bowed low, but still questioning.

He snapped his fingers for the messenger to follow him as he left the Emperor's chambers.

He said to the man as they hurried down the halls, "Send word to our broadcasters; tell them to summon Minoru Hikaru to the palace at once."

* * *

Kotaro nodded to the slightly aged Shinobi standing at the doors of the Mizukage's offices.

The man wore an eye patch, and the uniform of a Jounin. He nodded back to Kotaro and said, "So you're the Shinobi that washed up, eh? Another one from the old Leaf, huh?"

"Exactly so." Kotaro said . . . it wasn't a lie after all.

The man nodded, "Alright, alright. Sasuke send you?" The man asked.

"Does it matter who?" Kotaro asked.

"Not really. Most of the people who've come were sent along by Uchiha. Of course it doesn't matter, you're welcome whoever you are."

"And the island?" Kotaro asked.

"The island?" The Jounin asked.

"One of your people mentioned an island for the exiled shinobi." Kotaro said.

"Really? Seems I have some loose tongued subordinates. The island is classified."

"But if I'm going to be going there I might as well know where it is, don't you think?" Kotaro said.

"There'll be time for that latter. First, come with me, we need to conduct an interview. We let just anyone to the island, that's how you get spies and all sorts of dangerous people living right under your nose." The Jounin scoffed. "For all I know you could be one of the Sound Five after all."

"Imagine that." Kotaro said.

"Indeed. Follow me, we'll conduct your interview somewhere a bit more secure."

Kotaro nodded, and followed the one eyed ninja. He mentioned, "I didn't catch your name."

"It's not relevant . . . but you can call me Ao."

* * *

Miyuki saw the soldiers on the town's walls falling and knew that there was nothing she could do but try to protect the people.

She'd fail but at least she'd finally be doing what she thought she'd been doing all the time.

She wanted to run into the fray and join the battle, she knew she had to help everyone, but it wasn't what she was doing.

She was standing like an idiot in the middle of the street watching everything go up in flames.

She saw the temple where she lived and worked being to burn, the priestesses weren't even waiting for the enemy to take the town, they were taking no chances.

Miyuki wanted to help everyone in the bowels of the shrine but she knew it was too late.

Some of them had to deserve their fate . . . but some, like Mrs. Tanaka were just victims of corruption. The shrine officials hadn't worked hard enough to make sure . . .

Miyuki held her face in her hands.

Who was she kidding?

Someone grabbed her shoulder and shook her, "Yamamoto-san! Yamamoto-san, we're evacuating!"

"What?" Miyuki asked.

"The Emperor has decreed that this place is not to be defended, we are to evacuate." Another shrine worker-this one a Serpent Maiden-told her, "I was sent to find you, you have to come along, we need to get out of the town, get to the capital!"

Miyuki said, "What about the people?"

"The ninja won't hurt the people if the Emperor loves them his divine presence will protect them, even against these demons." The maiden insisted.

Miyuki shook her head and said, "No, no, it won't! If the Emperor told us to leave he must have meant the civilians too! I'll go to the gates and try to help the soldiers hold back the enemy a few moments longer, get as many civilians out as you can."

"What about you? I was sent to bring you specifically!" The woman cried.

"I was a . . ." Miyuki hesitated, then said, "I know how to sneak past Shinobi, alright? When the wall falls I'll sneak out and head for the city, you all just be on your way there too, and take as many of the civilians as you can."

The woman hesitated, then nodded and ran, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Civilians to the east gate, civilians to the east gate, the God Emperor wills that we evacuate this town!"

Miyuki sprinted for the walls, the gate was indeed breached but the fighting hadn't gotten too far into the town yet and the enemy seemed more interested in destroying the barracks and the shrine than anything else.

They might leave the people alone, which might give them all the time they needed to escape.

Miyuki was unarmed-she'd left the katana with the mayor-but she wasn't a killer.

She laughed at her own thought.

She wasn't _primarily _a killer, she was a medic, a healer.

She could do little better for the brave soldiers defending their home now than heal their injurues faster and better than any mundane doctor could, and if it helped a couple survive then it'd be worth the risk to her.

But she had every intention of getting out and going to the capital . . . because she needed to know.

Were things the same there?

Was this town just corrupt?

Or had Naruto-sensei been right?

She thought of Hitomi . . . it'd be crazy if for some reason Hitomi was amongst the attackers.

* * *

Kotaro folded his arms when he saw the room full of armed Chuunin and a pair of medics.

"We'll just need you to relax," One of the medics said.

"What's the meaning of this?" Kotaro demanded.

"Just a little service we provide to all the people Uchiha sends our way." Ao said, "We have to make sure you're _healthy _enough to go to the island after all. I suggest you not fight it."

Kotaro was worried he'd been discovered, and if he'd been under control he'd have attacked immediately.

But he wasn't, he was his own observant self.

He said, "You guys act like you do this a lot. How many ninja has Uchiha sent to the island?"

"Few dozen I guess." Ao said, "Just remove your ninja equipment, anything that could be a weapon and follow us. You'll get it all back when we send you to the island, I promise."

"What are the medics for?"

"In case you resist." Ao said.

Kotaro removed any weapons he had and all of his scrolls as well.

It didn't matter, if he needed a weapon he could call one up from his shadow.

They led him away, down a darkened corridor.

They came to a room that was almost completely dark, Kotaro was shoved in roughly and he felt something heavy slapped onto his hands.

"It always amazes me how far they let us take them." One of the Chuunin commented.

"They trust us." Ao grunted. "Well Karin-sama should be happy with this one, all kinds of things going on with him, my eye was going haywire, had to close it."

Kotaro heard a cell door slam shut and he sighed.

_You can't be serious. _He thought.

"Uh, yeah . . . I really just want to know where the island is," Kotaro said, "I'm running out of time."

"If Karin-sama feels like she could use another spy on the island she'll send you." Ao said, "After she's broken you that is. But she's taken a little trip so . . . well you'll probably be here a while before she even finds out we've got another one for her collection."

Kotaro sighed and leaned against the bars of his cell. "Are you kidding me?"

"If I am I'm not very funny." Ao said.

Despite the situation all he could think to say was; "Interesting."

* * *

Hitomi hit two soldiers hard on the sides of their heads, disorienting them, Hara snatched both their quivers and lightly tossed them over the side of the wall-into the city where they landed safely in bales of hay . . . at least that was what Hitomi chose to believe, if the falls killed them in spite of the hay she didn't really need to know it.

Hara grinned wolfishly as he slung both quivers over his shoulder and pulled a pair of arrows out.

"This is more like it." He said.

"You don't have a bow!" Hitomi said.

"I _am _a bow!" Hara smirked and snapping the feathered end off of the arrow he threw the rest like a dagger.

It flew true and buried itself in the hand of one of the enemy samurai, forcing the man to drop his katana and hold his hand screaming in agony.

"Nicely done," Hitomi admitted, "and with just one eye, I'm impressed."

"Actually I missed," Hara grumbled, "I meant to knock the weapon out of his hand-is he going to be okay?"

"Don't care," Hitomi said, "He's the enemy, you just keep focused on not snapping and going crazy on us!"

"I feel fine." Hara said, "I feel-" He jumped back to avoid a spear thrust, Hitomi stomped on the spear's shaft and quickly picked up the head and slammed it into the shoulder of the man who'd attacked.

She'd try not to kill if she didn't have to, these men were Fire country once and they were just defending their home from invaders.

"Well," Hara said, "I guess it's careless to be too chatty here but I do feel fine."

Hitomi didn't hear him though, she was looking at the little town.

The temple and the shrine were already in flames and some of the houses nearby had caught fire too, the flames would spread through the whole town if nobody stopped them.

It was too familiar.

She faltered and stepped backwards.

Hara put his hand on her shoulder and asked, "Are you hurt? What's wrong?"

Hitomi whispered, "I'm the monster this time . . ."

How many children like Saeki were in this village?

How many men like Kaoru were dying on this wall to protect their families?

Hitomi was shaking and Hara stood over her almost like a mother bear protecting her cub, keeping her out of the fighting and keeping her from getting trampled by their own side while still fighting off anyone who got too close.

Something in Hitomi noticed that even so, Hara wasn't losing control . . . maybe they'd been stupid to think he would once he was free of enemy influence and whatever they'd been using on him . . . but then he probably didn't need specific memories to be protective, Hara had always been a natural protector.

Hitomi shook her head, and suddenly one of her captains was beside her.

"Are you hurt, Commander Hijiri? What's wrong with her?" Kurita asked urgently.

"I don't know!" Hara said and he sounded like he was in a panic, "How's she supposed to be acting?"

"More aggressive, usually she and Sasuke-sama are competing for kills by this point!" Kurita said.

Hitomi shook her head, "I-I'm fine! I'm fine, Kurita, I just-"

A samurai rushed at them, flanked by his guard.

The Samurai's facemask hid his expression save for his angry eyes, but the two soldiers looked terrified of the Shinobi their master was making them attack.

Kurita saw the attack in time and dodged, Hitomi saw it too but she didn't have time to dodge because Hara knocked her back before she could even think of it, before Kurita even moved.

He raised his arm, blocking the katana with his powerful scales. With his other, more human arm he drew an arrow and stabbed the Samurai in the stomach, Kurita appeared behind the two guards and stabbed one of them through the back, the shinobi's blade bursting out of the man's chest.

"No!" Hitomi shouted, on her feet and blocking the remaining guard from her comrades, "Don't kill-"

She felt the man's sword in her stomach, and she understood what'd happened.

She just didn't really believe it.

She lost control of her legs almost immediately and she and the soldier tumbled down over the wall.

"Commander!" Kurita shouted in disbelief.

"Hitomi?" Hara sounded more confused than anything.

Hitomi didn't blame him, she was pretty confused herself.

She hit the ground hard.

The soldier hit it harder, Hitomi heard a loud _crack _when the man hit the ground and broke her fall.

She might have been wrong but she was pretty sure the landing had only driven the shortsword deeper into her stomach too, and she wondered if it'd severed her spine . . . she'd need that to walk right?

And her stomach, she needed that for . . . living or something she wasn't really sure anymore.

But being stabbed in the stomach seemed . . . kind of bad maybe.

She watched the village burn and thought to herself _I'm the one who did it this time . . ._

_Do unto others,_ She thought to herself, then wondered, _is that from something?_

_"_I dunno . . ." she answered herself as her eyes began to close.

She felt giddy, so she laughed softly to herself as someone rolled her onto her back.

She whispered, "Let me sleep in . . ."

A familiar voice said, "If you sleep you might not wake up."

"I don't want to . . ."

She felt someone slap her in the face and say, "Don't give up! Stay with me!"

She grumbled and tried to turn away and pull the covers over her head.

But she couldn't find them.

Someone held her hand tightly and said, "Listen to my voice and hold on damn it!"

"Is that you, Nao?" Hitomi mumbled.

"Sure, it's whoever you want, just don't let go!"

"I don't want to fight anymore . . ." Hitomi mumbled, "I'm sleepy."

"You're talking, that's good, keep talking."

Hitomi _wanted _to say more but she couldn't even open her mouth.

She couldn't speak.

She wanted to say 'take care of Saeki, don't let her get teased and don't let her feel like she's alone' she wanted to say 'find Miyuki, and keep her and Hara safe, don't let Naruto-sensei feel bad about me' and she also wanted to say 'don't fall on swords' because she thought they'd be funny last words.

She'd been pretty stupid . . . she didn't often hesitate, didn't _ever _mess up so badly . . . and the fires hadn't even been her fault anyway, it was Orochimaru . . . he hurt everyone, even his own people . . . his people had burned Kaoru's village, his people had burned this one.

Maybe her last words should be something more profound, like 'never stop fighting Orochimaru's tyranny' or 'live free or die' or 'don't fall on swords' or . . . no wait, she'd already thought of that last one.

And then it hit her . . . her last words?

_I'm dying . . ._ she thought to herself.

That sort of sucked.

There wasn't a light . . . but she hadn't expected one anyway.

Still . . . would have been a pleasant surprise.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	74. The Green Glory

**Chapter Seventy Two**

Kotaro listened carefully but didn't hear any noise from the guards.

He wasn't about to be trapped like this, and he sensed that the Water shinobi didn't mean for him to remain trapped, if they had they would have taken all of his gear.

True they'd bound his hands, but that wasn't enough to stop most ninja, and Kotaro was _better _than most ninja.

He bit down on his lower lip until he tasted blood then spat on his left arm where a summoning tattoo should be.

Normally the hosts carried capsules of the Sound Five's blood because it caused less confusion when summoning, but Kotaro was sure that a summoned beast would respond to the blood of a host.

At least he was fairly certain.

At first nothing, but as he applied more blood to the tattoo, whether because the source was unimportant or because it was Kotaro's mind calling them the snakes finally responded.

A snake that, in the light would heave been as wide as Kotaro and three times as long as he was tall appeared in the cell coiled around him. Kotaro asked it, "What do you smell?"

The snake responded quietly, curiously, "Half a dozen ssshinobi, yourssself, sssteel barsss . . . many cellsss."

"In this room? Are they empty?"

There was a sound, in the darkness Kotaro couldn't see anything but he guessed the snake had shook its upper body in mimicry of a headshaking gesture because it responded, "No, not in this room. Other roomsss. Roomsss nearby."

Kotaro smiled deviously.

It his guess was right he might just destabilize the alliance, something Orochimaru would want, and help some Konoha Shinobi, which was something he wanted himself.

"Get me out of here, and get these things off my hands."

"Tricky." The snake commented, "Sssteel."

Kotaro scoffed, "We don't have a lot of time, so if you don't mind . . ."

"Ssspoil sssport." The snake hissed, and Kotaro felt the giant creature uncoil from him and slither to wrap itself around the bars of his cell.

Its massive mouth came towards him in the dark and opened over his manacled wrists. Its sharp fangs kept sheathed as its delicate tongue flicked the manacles as if it were flicking the air or tasting the metal, the snake suddenly struck while still constricting the bars of the cell.

There was a loud crunching sound as steel bars bent and then broke under the strength of the magical serpent, but the snake's strike didn't break the steel manacles.

At least not right away.

The snake had struck but wasn't biting, its tongue slithered over the metal manacles into the lock, not unlocking it so much as pushing against it so hard that it broke with a loud snap.

The door opened, a Chuunin in the doorway quickly shoved aside by Ao.

"Get back you idiot he's-"

Kotaro didn't give the older ninja time to finish, once his hands were free he leapt through the newly opened cell and, drawing his kunai and throwing them, forced Ao on the defensive right away.

The older man used substitution to escape, but only cleared the path for Kotaro who entered into the lit hallway and clung to the wall just out of easy reach.

His snake companion sprang from the darkened room as well, massive jaws closing on the unfortunate Chuunin by the doorway and immediately wrapping the man up in a deadly constricting embrace.

Kotaro formed the hand seals for the Chidori, the Mist ninja scrambled, two of them coming after him and two going after the snake in an attempt to free their comrade.

Ao was nowhere to be seen.

Kotaro sprang towards the two men coming after him and thrust his hand forward as if he meant to strike the one nearest to him with his lightning clad hand.

But instead he swept his arm out and around, sweeping behind him, expecting to find Ao there.

To his surprise however the veteran Jounin wasn't there.

Instinct told Kotaro to look up and he saw Ao on the ceiling charging a Jutsu of his own. Kotaro wouldn't allow that, he continued his spin, bringing his Chidori to bare on the unfortunate Chuunin anyway-the man substituted but at least he was out of Kotaro's hair for a half second-and Kotaro used the now ruined decorative statue the man had substituted with as a weapon.

He kicked a large chunk of it up at Ao as he dove to the side, out of the way of the second Chuunin. The older ninja on the ceiling leapt away but kept out of Kotaro's range.

Kotaro laughed slightly and said, "So this is what happens when Konoha shinobi try to reach the island? You lock them up? And then what?"

Ao smirked, "You'll find out when we recapture you."

"I'll bet." Kotaro said, "I'll have to leave one of you alive regardless so I can find out where the island actually is."

"How do you know it exists at all?" Ao taunted as he sprang for Kotaro in unison with the rest of his Chuunin, most of them now ignoring the snake.

Big mistake.

The snake struck out, dropping its crushed victim and biting into a second foe, who not unexpectedly substituted to safety-they'd been hoping to urge the snake to strike again.

The problem was that when the serpent did so it didn't just stop when it missed its meal, it barreled on towards one of the walls.

It slammed its full weight into the wall and Kotaro smirked.

"What the-" One of the Chuunin gasped, but Kotaro was on the move, substituting away from the gang of Mist ninja and reappearing beside his summoned companion.

He let the snake run minor interference while he gathered the energy for another Chidori, which he slammed into the wall, creating a large hole.

But he wasn't done, he ran across the wall, ripping a gash along it for several feet before he stopped and turned to smirk at Ao and his ninja.

"Sir, if he-" One of the Chuunin said, but Ao held up a hand.

"We're shinobi of the village hidden in mist, we don't run from a battle. Kill him now, this Konoha scum won't ruin everything our Mizukage has worked for!"

Kotaro laughed, and used one more Jutsu.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He shouted, creating five copies of himself.

He would have had precious little chakra left after summoning and using Chidori twice in rapid succession, but he could burn chakra from his host past the safety zone if he needed to.

But he didn't want to.

He needed the body intact and in place when he reached the island.

But if his hunch was right . . .

He let his five shadow clones engage the five surviving Mist ninja, they would have to resort to Taijutsu and stall tactics.

He himself leapt into the gash he'd created into a darkened room.

"If you're from Konohagakure make some noise so I can find you!" Kotaro ordered.

And the prisoners inside obeyed.

Rattling chains, groans, Kotaro laughed despite the situation.

The alliance wasn't as stable as it seemed, Mist had been betraying Leaf all this time . . .

Perhaps he was better off sticking with Orochimaru in the end after all.

Even so, he needed to achieve his ends, and for that he could imagine less more effective than setting loose a dozen or so angry Konoha prisoners in an under defended Kirigakure.

* * *

Ao's back was to a wall.

The prisoners hands and in some cases feet were still be bound in the molds that prevented the use of Jutsus, but those who could still charged for him and his men once they realized what was happening.

The subjects had gone a while without proper exercise, but Karin-sama had always made sure to keep them well fed and given enough exercise to maintain their health.

Damn her treating them with any level of decency.

And damn him for bringing an unknown enemy straight to the labs; but he'd never had trouble before.

He'd known there was something fishy about this kid, but the chakra coming him his body wasn't terribly refined; he'd assumed a Genin or maybe a Chuunin who'd been inactive for a while.

Ao glared at the young man who fought like a Jounin.

Was this some member of the Anbu sent to free the prisoners? No, that didn't make sense, no one in the exile village should know about the prisoners . . .

And if this were a rescue mission they'd have already freed the most dangerous of the prisoners, the man bound, chained and kept nearly starved to sap his strength.

He Leapt onto the shoulders of one escaped prisoner and leapt from his shoulders towards the roof, kicking the man as he went.

He clung to the ceiling by focusing chakra to his palms then pulled himself up so that he was clinging with his feet as well.

The youth who had freed the prisoners had made shadow clones, but they were being released one by one not by Ao's Chuunin, but likely by the attacker himself.

_He's low on Chakra, so he doesn't want them expelling too much before he reabsorbs them. _Ao realized.

He hadn't been wrong about the chakra, there wasn't much of it and it wasn't refined; the techniques his enemy was using were advanced.

The enemy shinobi had just two clones left, Ao saw the true attacker leap towards him, letting his entire body come to life with electricity, nearly blinding Ao.

So the veteran shinobi knew that as he dodged the oncoming attacker he needed to be looking for one or both of the clones to attack him from behind.

He ran along the ceiling as his enemy landed on the ceiling where he had been a moment ago, his lightning ripping into the ceiling.

Ao could see that one of the clones was gone now, only one remained.

It was either in hiding or his enemy had released it to keep his own chakra up.

That meant as long as his entire body was covered in lightning as it was now he was burning through his chakra reserves like mad; he'd release the final clone soon.

Ao just needed to evade while he prepared his own counter attack.

He kept his Byakugan on both the youth covered in lightning and on his clone.

In a blast of smoke the last clone disappeared.

Ao smirked, he was about to-a flash of gray to the side of his normal eye, he'd only barely begun to turn his head when-

"Dynamic entry!"

Ao was hit hard and he flew into-_through_-the nearest wall.

He groaned pitifully and tried to rise to his feet but they wouldn't acknowledge his desire to move.

He could still feel them-they _hurt_-but they weren't going to be holding him up at the moment.

Dressed in the gray jumpsuit of Karin-sama's prisoners, his hair and beard grown out of control the Konoha Jounin captured years ago stood in the hole Ao had made in the wall when he flew through it.

"Blast it all," Might Gai said, striking a pose, "if I were in top form you'd have made it at least twenty feet into the floor too, digging your own grave."

Ao scowled.

He understood, the enemy had tricked him.

The boy had blinded him and sent the second clone to free the most dangerous prisoner they had, then dispersed his other in order to trick Ao into not wondering where the missing clone had gone.

And Ao had thought he had it all figured out . . .

He weakly raised his hand and spoke in a raspy voice, "Stop . . . I'll . . . tell you . . . what you . . . want to know."

The youth appeared in front of him as if he'd teleported and crouched down over him.

"Then talk. How do I get to the exiled island, and why are you keeping these people prisoner in the first place?"

"Who are you?" Ao rasped, finding his breath but still too sore and broken to resist.

The boy smiled, "Hatake Kotaro, son of Hatake Kakashi, the greatest Shinobi in the Empire."

* * *

Fire, fire, the whole village on fire . . .

"Stop your complainin' if'n you're overheating get yourself a swim in the river." Keika said the last part through a yawn.

"Ah yes, exposing myself to the masses." Hitomi grumbled as she leaned against a wall in Kaoru's home.

Keika was sitting at the table sipping a glass of water that Hitomi was tempted to steal and splash across her own face.

Kaoru was sitting across from her and staring out the window, probably wanting to go outside but remaining with Keika instead.

"Mi-chan if my _assets _were as _robust _as yours-" Keika began but Hitomi cut her off.

"You're pregnant Keika-san so I'll let you go for now, but once that baby is born I am going to hit you . . . terribly hard." Hitomi warned.

"All I'm saying is that it would probably make all sorts of people's day havin' yourself getting all half naked and wet in the river."

"Well once you give birth we'll be sure to make a day of it, won't we?" Hitomi scoffed.

"I'm warning, I swim in nothing. People might misunderstand and I know how you get when people imagine yourself . . . myself . . . dim lights, heavy breathing-"

Kaoru stood up suddenly and headed for the door, "That's it, I'm taking a walk!"

Keika smirked viciously, and sipped her water, "That's better."

"You're set to pop any day now, he just wants to be nearby." Hitomi said.

"An I'll be strangling him before the child's born if he doesn't give myself my space." Keika said evenly, "Myself I'm wanting to teach a few more things before I "pop" as yourself says."

Hitomi frowned, "You've taught me just about everything about our eyes, and spotting the . . . things." Hitomi had no word for the nearly invisible monsters that only she and Keika could see.

But she knew they were of the same ship as the serpents that Sound had used during the war.

Knowing that they existed "in the wild" had troubled her, but then she decided if they existed anyway then at least it meant Orochimaru wasn't making them, he'd just found some way to use them.

Not that that mattered anymore . . . the war was over as far as she was concerned, she'd be perfectly content just living in Kaoru's village for the rest of her life.

Keika smiled and reached out, gently squeezing Hitomi's shoulder.

"Yourself is knowing how to use your own eyes, yourself is knowing how to avoid and handle the beasties, but yourself is still like a child, Mi-chan."

"Oh my heck." Hitomi grumbled.

"You have to speak to people, Mi-chan. Old women at the market, children playing in the streets, you need to speak to other human beings, Mi-chan."

"Yeah, yeah." Hitomi scoffed.

Keika frowned and whispered, "Mi-chan . . . I wanted yourself to consider something for me . . ."

"Something _else_?" Hitomi scoffed, "I'm considering so much-"

"Hitomi-chan, I myself wont be here forever." Keika said a little sharply.

Hitomi frowned and stood up from leaning against the wall, "What're you talking about? You're not sick are you?"

Keika shook her head and said, "Not physically, not really . . . but . . . myself I'm a wanderer. I've already decided that this little one is going to stay with Kaoru, you know . . . to be safe and stable, normal."

Hitomi nodded, and said, "So you want me to go with you when you leave?"

She doubted it though, she was pretty sure she knew what Keika wanted.

Keika sighed and said, "It drives myself mad being here so confined, but I know myself and my child shouldn't be traveling all around together. Myself I'd have the child here with Kaoru . . . I'd have yourself here too."

Hitomi folded her arms and frowned, "So you know where to find me?" Hitomi raised an eyebrow, and Keika nodded. Hitomi asked, "What makes you think I wouldn't rather go with you?"

"What makes yourself think I'd suffer you?" Keika laughed.

"Then why shouldn't I travel on my own?" Hitomi asked.

"Yourself needs human contact as I said," Keika said, "Kaoru's a good guy, he won't take advantage of you even if yourself asked him."

"I'm not going to steal your-" Hitomi began but Keika raised a hand.

"No, I'm knowing." Keika nodded, "I'm just saying the child should have someone around who knows about what ourselves are like, and yourself is comfortable with Kaoru-kun and know he's trustworthy. If you helped my child during the times I wont be here, acted as a sort of second mother . . ."

Hitomi frowned. She felt like she owed Keika a lot, but taking care of a human life?

Being a surrogate mother to a child whose real mother was already having thoughts of abandoning it?

Hitomi whispered, "Why can't you just be here for the kid?"

Keika laughed, "I will be for as long as I can as often as I can." Keika said, "But suppose wanderlust takes myself away from this boring little place? Or suppose something happened to me . . . I'd be wanting to know you'd be here, or I'd go mad with worry."

Hitomi frowned. She'd never even imagined raising a child, not seriously anyway. She didn't like the idea.

She shoved her hands into her pocket and whispered to Keika, "I don't know if I could do that. I mean-"

She was cut off by the shouts of alarm, followed by screams of fear.

* * *

Hitomi's eyes opened and she coughed, spitting something out of her mouth and grunting something even she didn't understand.

"I'll bet you don't taste half as good yourself." Karin scoffed.

"Get her to her feet." Sasuke-senpai's voice rang clearly . . . but not from very nearby.

It took Hitomi a moment to realize what that, and the sunlight in her face meant.

The battle was over.

Long over.

Hayato was standing nearby, a look of disdain on his face. He probably disapproved of "magic medicine" being used but he was smart enough not to say so in front of Karin.

Hitomi struggled to sit up, Hara was nearby and quickly offered her his hand.

She tried to ignore it at first, but once she raised herself off the ground she was forced to take it or go crashing down again.

"Seems you did an incomplete job, Karin." Sasuke commented.

"Excuse me? You told me to save her life and she'll live. Have you ever healed someone just by letting them bite you, Sasuke-kun? No? Then you really have no idea how draining it can be, do you? I have dozens of other Shinobi to attend to, let the mundane medic handle the rest."

Hitomi struggled to stay on her feet and Hayato came over to inspect her now closed wound.

"You did a decent job bandaging it before you went unconscious at least. It saved your life."

Hitomi frowned, "I don't even remember doing that."

"Not surprising. You lost a lot of blood and fell from a twenty-something foot wall." Sasuke said dryly.

Hitomi frowned, "I guess I was just . . . careless."

Sasuke-senpai shook his head and said, "Never mind that. You're alive, be grateful for that."

"Yes sir." Hitomi said. "I guess we won?"

"Completely. Once it was clear that the civilians were trying to evacuate the soldiers got more vicious; put up more of a fight than we'd expected. They were desperate to make sure we didn't follow their families."

"Not that we would have anyway." Hara grunted.

"I would hope not." Sasuke said, "Once the civilians were out the remaining enemy forces fell back to try to cover the civilian retreat and ironically that was when we finished them off. If anyone besides the ones we took prisoner survived I'd be pretty impressed." Sasuke said. "When the blood of the Mist shinobi starts to boil they don't slow down."

Hitomi nodded slowly and looked away as Sasuke walked off to talk to Karin and the Mizukage. Juugo remained and started to discuss something with Hara.

Now that it was obvious she'd survive, the focus was off of Hitomi.

Except for Hayato who was checking her wounds. He commented, "You must have been paying pretty close attention to me all these years."

"Hmm?" Hitomi glanced at him, "What do you mean?"

"Your bandages. Given that you were slipping out of consciousness when you applied them they're pretty expertly done."

"Could a medic have attended to me then?" Hitomi wondered, "Why assume _I'm _the one who bandaged me?"

"It doesn't matter really, whatever happened you're still alive, right?" Hara asked.

Hayato had a different answer, "The sensors weren't aware of any ninja mixed in with the wall's defenders at the time you went down, and Mist's own medics were held back until the wall was down; you would have bled out if nobody attended you and if it wasn't one of ours or an enemy it must have been you yourself."

Hitomi frowned, and supposed that made some sense.

Or not, she wasn't sure.

She just knew she was alive, and she'd nearly died.

She'd been stupid.

But she was alive.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note**: So at last Gai makes his way into the story. Much like this chapter, he's very late. Though it was always planned that Karin would be doing experiments of her own it wasn't always planned that Gai would be one of the people she had in her collection; however since many people were curious about what happened to him and since it'd been so long that there needed to be a fairly decent reason he hadn't appeared I thought this was a pretty good opportunity. One of the reasons Gai hadn't appeared previously is that I'm not terribly good at writing his character. It's not that I don't like him, it's more that I just don't get how to write him properly which makes me less inclined to do it, but I figure I'll give it a try.

**Note 2:** Another reason this is late is because while it was ready to go up round about 2 weeks ago the site had some sort of issue and I just got an error message every time I tried to update anything in the Naruto category (everything else was fine) others probably noticed this problem too. Granted it was still way overdue anyway, this was just sort of like adding insult to injury. It's a reminder that a lot of work goes into maintaining this website we all enjoy.

**Note 3**: That said you're probably thinking "well then shouldn't there be like 2 other chapters with this one?" and the answer is "yes . . . there _should_" but really there's more like . . . 1/2 of one? It'll be ready by the weekend for sure.


	75. Demands

**Chapter Seventy Three**

Deep in the dark and misty channeling room Kabuto stood over the coffin-like machine that allowed Kotaro to project himself so far away.

"His host body has to be running out of chakra by now." One of the medics warned.

Kabuto shrugged, "Even if he tried to kill himself that way he'd return to his body. Kotaro-kun might not be under our control right now, but he'd not out of our reach."

"He has been operating for several hours longer than he should have been allowed, both his host body and his own body have their limits, my lord." The medic dared to say.

Kabuto nodded and said, "Give it another hour, then yank him back."

The medic nodded, and Kabuto left the room and nearly ran into Yukio.

"What are you doing here?" Kabuto asked.

_As if I didn't know, _he thought.

"In this time of crisis I wanted to listen to the prayers of my followers and deal out justice in the Emperor's name."

Kabuto smiled and nodded, "Then go about it. You know the Emperor favors you highly Yukio because of your loyalty."

"He will always have it." Yukio said with a bow.

Kabuto chuckled and headed to his lab.

If he were the sort he might have whistled or hummed a tune, instead he walked in contemplative silence.

He had ordered the entire Ishida family assembled and brought to his lab, they should be there by now. He and his assistants would work on the entire clan today. Nothing too complicated-he might need to be called away to deal with Kotaro in an hour or so-the would just undergo physical exertion and stress reaction tests.

He wanted to see all of them-rather all that he had-and better determine what their bloodline might do if it existed. More importantly he wanted to determine which of the parents it originated from, and if, by some fluke the Ishida had just borne some new bloodline out of thin air he wanted to know _how_.

But when he arrived he was surprised when he saw Kasumi standing outside of his lab. _They're all over the place today, perhaps removing the Controllers has made them more apt to exploration . . . that could be a problem._

He raised an eyebrow and asked, "What brings you here, young lady?"

Kasumi frowned, "My husband did not come back to our room last night. I thought maybe he was here being improved further."

"Ah, no such luck." Kabuto said.

"Then do you know where he is, Lord Shogun?"

Kabuto smiled, "Learn patience child, you will see him again in good time."

Kasumi frowned and asked, "What are you going to do with them? The people who were brought in a moment ago?"

"It's not important. You should get to bed."

"I've already slept. I've just woken up." Kasumi said, sounding a little confused.

"Yes of course, but when Kotaro-kun gets back isn't that where you'll want to greet him?"

"No." Kasumi said with a frown, "I . . . actually Lord Shogun, Kotaro-kun and I do not share a bed . . . our marriage feels . . . distant and unnatural. But I still feel concern for him, that is why I am here. Does that make sense?"

"No." Kabuto scoffed, "It sounds as if you're a very poor wife."

"I just feel that Kotaro is more of a comrade to me than a lover." Kasumi frowned.

"And I hope you feel sufficiently ashamed of yourself." Kabuto said, glancing at his door to send the subtle message that he wanted to take his leave and go to work.

But Kasumi asked, "Why?"

Kabuto rolled his eyes as if continuing to speak to Kasumi was some sort of punishment. He told her, "You begged Lord Orochimaru to grant you leave to marry Kotaro, remember? And now that you have him you're confused about what to do? It's obvious to me that you feel distant because you're creating distance, you push him away. Not even sharing a bed? A husband and wife?"

"But . . . he feels the same way." Kasumi frowned.

"Of course he does, he's a very shy and sensitive person so when he sees that you, the instigator of your relationship show such obvious hesitation he reacts in kind. After all, didn't you spend hours following him around flirting boldly over these past years?"

"Have I?" Kasumi looked surprised.

"Do not play coy, I haven't the time for it." Kabuto said irritably, "You're nervous, all newlyweds are. But I think the best thing for you to do is remember those feelings you felt when you came to me and the Emperor begging our leave to begin a family of your own."

"I . . ." Kasumi looked doubtful, and she looked confused.

Kabuto decided to twist the knife, "Why it seems just yesterday the young woman standing before me excitedly declared that she would name her first born Masaru."

Ah the name, the name she thought he didn't know. Kabuto could see his using it caught her attention and now it was time to go for the kill.

"You were so pleased, you wrote the name everywhere, kept repeating it to yourself, determined not to forget it."

"I . . . remember the name . . ." Kasumi frowned, "But . . . I don't think . . . I mean . . . didn't I _know _someone-"

"My darling girl have I ever lied to you?" Kabuto asked and knew Kasumi wouldn't know the correct answer. In order to seem even more benign however he added, "That is, have I ever lied to you on purpose with desire to harm you? Any falsehoods I've told you have always come from a lack of certainty on my part. But of one thing I am certain; you love Kotaro and were very desirous to have his child. If you concentrate on that you will find that everything else makes sense."

Kasumi nodded slowly and said, "I . . . should go."

"About time." Kabuto said as if the whole ordeal had been a waste of his time.

She bowed as he walked past her into his labs, as the door closed behind him he allowed himself a smirk.

_It was fun doing things the old fashioned way. Perhaps Lord Orochimaru is correct and we don't need Controllers after all. _He beheld the Ishida family being prepared by his assistants for the day's tests. The mother and father didn't quite seem worried enough about Kabuto or his intentions.

But Eri, the youngest present and the one he'd been working on the longest looked weary and even a little afraid of him. He enjoyed that.

He clapped his hands together and said, "Well, I hope you've all enjoyed this brief little family reunion," He told the Ishida family, "But it's time to learn more about you."

_After all I hate to be burdened still trying to figure you lot out once Kasumi finally brings me my newest subject. Now all she has to do is conceive it._

* * *

Kasumi didn't leave right away, she folded her arms and thought to herself.

She didn't quite understand what had just happened, Lord Kabuto had treated her as if she were a child.

But . . . she was an adult, wasn't she?

Was she? How old was she?

How old was Kotaro?

They weren't ready for children and Kasumi herself never thought about children with Kotaro . . . she never thought about _children_.

She stalked off for Shiroi's chambers, as the only other woman she could speak to since Okatsu-sensei disappeared-not that she ever confided anything in Okatsu-sensei-maybe Shiroi would understand what had just happened.

Because unless Kasumi was an idiot Kabuto had just tried to encourage her to get herself pregnant in the middle of a war.

But he couldn't be that ignorant; he had to know that even if she did want children-and she didn't-the risk was far too high when she herself would have to fight, and with the enemy baring down on Otogakure itself . . . well, there were only so many host bodies to inhabit before simply getting her own hands dirty became preferable, she liked to think that while her hosts had been approximated to her as best as they could be they were still not the same.

As she walked down the halls to Shiroi's chambers she noticed that for whatever reason she was a little confused, as if she'd never really walked there before which she knew was insane.

No . . . it was more that she'd never had to take herself there before, she'd always sort of intuitively known how to get there from wherever she might be . . . but now . . .

Now she was pretty sure she was lost.

She came to a door guarded by two acolytes who were probably trained as Shinobi. She bowed slightly and they returned the gesture.

"Can we help you, honored one?" One of them asked.

"I seem to be a bit turned around, I was trying to reach the chambers of my friend . . ." Kasumi trailed off . . . for some reason she felt dishonest calling Shiroi her friend.

But she shook her head and thought nothing of it. "Can you yell me how to reach Akuma Shiroi's chambers, or perhaps lead me there?"

The guards seemed hesitant, one of them shifted in his lavender robes and said, "We cannot leave our post, Mistress . . . but-"

The door they guarded suddenly opened and Shiroi's eyes so capable in the darkness saw into the darkened room behind it.

She saw what looked a hallway extending quite some distance, and she saw what looked like bars . . . barred cells?

A prison in the palace? That was insane.

But she forgot all about it when she saw the man who emerged from the darkened room.

Very tall and lean and dressed in lavender acolyte robes, his shaggy brown hair showing signs of gray even though he wasn't yet an aging fellow.

"Under stress, Minoru-san?" Kasumi asked with a surprising amount of hostility.

Minoru Hikaru shrugged and said, "Somewhat. Disturbing news from the Lightning front."

Kasumi frowned, "I was told by the Shogun that the Lightning forces were routed and that they were pushed back to their own lands."

Minoru smiled a thin smile, "Indeed. It seems our victory was too thorough though, I've just heard from one of our people in the labyrinth that someone I knew was killed in the fighting . . . someone I rather hoped to kill myself. It's disappointing, and I find myself feeling surprisingly melancholy. Is there anything I can do for you, little one?"

_Little one? How old _am _I? _Kasumi wondered, then she thought _Am I short? Is that what it is? No, he's just extremely tall._

But one thing he said caught her attention, "Labyrinth?" She asked, "Is that what's behind that door?"

Minoru seemed surprised and raised an eyebrow at her, "Did you not know? You've been there . . . several times. _I _have been there _with _you, you and the rest of the Five."

Kasumi frowned because while she felt like she understood what he was talking about the memories themselves were so fuzzy that she wondered if they were even hers.

He asked her, "Are you feeling okay?"

Kasumi frowned, "Well . . . I've been felling a little absentminded I suppose. I got lost just trying to visit Shiroi in fact."

Minoru scoffed and said to one of the guards, "Take her to Shiroi then."

"But sir, we cannot leave the Labyrinth entrance unguarded." The vocal shinobi said and the cursed Shinobi scowled at him.

"It takes one man to guard a blasted door in a secured palace. Trust me if what's in there got out the both of you wouldn't last any longer than just one, so _you _take the girl to see her comrade _now_, I can't be bothered with her I'm going to see the Shogun."

"Y-yes sir!" The guard said and quickly took Kasumi's hand, "M-madam."

Kasumi tilted her head to the side and watched Minoru's back appraisingly as he left.

The guards feared him . . . they didn't fear her.

For some reason she was happy about that but it also made her wonder . . . why did anyone fear him? Was he powerful? Was he dangerous?

Why then wasn't he on the front killing the people he wanted to kill?

Was it to guard what was in the Labyrinth? He said she'd been there before, she must have the authority to do so then . . .

But not just now.

First she'd talk to Shiroi, though about what she couldn't fully recall.

_Wait . . . _she thought, _No, I _do _remember now . . . odd, I just tried to remember it and . . . I did it. That . . . almost _never _happens._

Hattori Kasumi recognized that something was very different in her world.

But what?

* * *

Kotaro's eyes opened and he sat up in the channeling chamber.

"Ah, Kotaro-senpai, you're back." Yukio said, looking a little nervous as he stepped into his own channeling chamber, "The technicians were just telling me they were growing concerned."

"I solved a few little matters." Kotaro said softly, realizing that he felt ill.

_Perhaps I was immersed too long . . . I can only imagine what my host must be feeling, I used far too much of his chakra and I'm only able to let him rest a short while._

"Lord Shogun wanted to see you, I believe. He is in his lab," One of the technicians commented, "It is good to have you back, sire. Did your mission go well?"

Kotaro felt a little numb saying it, he didn't know if it was what he'd done or how long he'd been out of his own body.

Hoarsely he said, "I transported the Ishida family back here and obtained the suspected location of their first born daughter."

The technician seemed impressed, "That's more than the Shogun expected, but you should probably give the report to him directly, he's in his lab working on the Ishida family members you've already brought back."

Kotaro nodded and glanced at Yukio, "What about you, you going to nab the other one we're missing?"

Yukio shook his head, "No. Just uh . . . just listening in on the prayers, Kotaro-senpai."

Yukio seemed a lot more nervous than usual. Kotaro wondered if Yukio had always been like that and he'd just been too busy being controlled to notice, or if being off the leash was doing it.

Had Lord Orochimaru had time to threaten everyone yet?

_The bastard, _Kotaro thought, _for his sake I'm enslaving an innocent family? No . . . for their sake. _Kotaro thought, looking at Yukio and thinking of the other members of the Five.

_We're all slaves, only by standing together can we survive what is going to come._

He hopped out of the chamber and nearly stumbled, the medical technician helped him and said, "Well maybe you should take a short rest before you give your report to the Shogun. You've told me the gist of it so I'll let him-"

"No, no," Kotaro said, "I need to make the report directly; and I'll need by chamber ready for another go by this evening, by then the submersible should be in position. I have to acquire the eldest Ishida daughter quickly."

The medic nodded and said to one of the others in the room, "Go with him, support him as he needs it."

Kotaro nodded in slight thanks, but what he felt had to be miniscule compared to what his host body was feeling.

And he'd have to use the man as a conduit one last time before he was through.

He felt burdened now by his memories.

He'd accumulated just a day or so's worth but it felt like a year . . . and now he could remember the betrayals he committed, the lies he told.

It made him all the more determined to see the war ended and order restored.

He didn't want to lie anymore.

_"You're the spitting image of my old friend, and you fight like a legend come flesh! Your father must be proud of you, Kotaro!" _Gai had told him before he made his excuse to part ways with the Konoha prisoners he'd set free.

He'd been unable to say anything to that except _"thank you" _because while he knew it couldn't be true-his father would despise him and be ashamed of the things he was doing-he wanted to believe it.

He wanted to think his father, his heroic legendary father was truly proud of him, even if they were on different sides.

He wanted to think his father would understand someday why he was doing what he was doing and why, even if he didn't believe in Orochimaru's cause, he couldn't act against it.

He wanted to believe that Might Gai and the other Shinobi would never learn the truth of who and what he was, that they would carry on thinking he was a Konoha Jounin who'd found out about Mist's treachery and been dispatched to save them.

But he knew once they caught up with Naruto's army-if the did-they'd learn the truth and the next time he saw them it would be in battle.

While it would have been treasonous to directly tell them not to tell him, Kotaro had been sure to leave, claiming to need to attend to other business in the city before they could tell him what their plans were.

Maybe they'd capture the city, maybe they'd burn it to the ground, he didn't care.

Whatever they chose to do they were justified, some of them had been imprisoned since the war began, how _long _had Karin been with Mist?

Kotaro wasn't sure, he suspected, given that the experiments seemed to be similar to what Orochimaru and Kabuto were doing, that they were being done for similar reasons, perhaps at the behest of the Emperor and Shogun.

He would express this because there was no point in hiding it when he spoke to Kabuto.

He entered the room and saw Kabuto. He saw the Ishida family and though he was certain he'd never seen all of them before they all looked familiar to him.

They weren't alone, in addition to the myriad of medical scientists poking and prodding at them as the day's testing was about to begin-it looked like physical exertion today-Kotaro saw a tall robed shinobi standing besides Kabuto and speaking to the Shogun as he looked over some papers on a clipboard.

He was mildly familiar, but Kotaro decided not to set his mind to the investigation; he'd worry later about who this man was and what threat he might pose.

Kabuto turned and smiled, "Kotaro! I could just sense you coming. How did it go?"

"Isn't it obvious? You have them, don't you?" Kotaro asked.

"Ah yes." Kabuto smiled, "But I mean the rest. You were gone quite a long time."

"I was. And I need to go back by nightfall." Kotaro said.

Kabuto considered, then nodded, "I will permit that, provided you spend the day in your wife's arms. I had a little talk with her and I think she has planned quite the reception for you as a result."

The robed shinobi chuckled and Kabuto was about to go back to his clipboard but Kotaro snarled, "She's not really my wife, but that doesn't mean I condone you treating her like anything less than a human being! She's not a toy, whatever you've said or done to her!"

Kabuto's façade of kindness disappeared but though his face became twisted and hostile, his tone remained calm and collected.

"Oh no, Kotaro-kun? She's my toy, as are you. You both live because _I _am not through playing with you and because Lord Orochimaru _allows _it. So when I tell you to do something with her, or with anyone else, you will do it . . . are we clear?"

The young Hatake saw beyond Kabuto the Ishida family and thought, _are they just your toys too? Do you not see them as people? Would it make any difference to you if you did?_

Kotaro scoffed. "We're clear," He said. "But you and Orochimaru agreed, I am to be rewarded for good service from now on, isn't that so?"

"Ah." Kabuto smirked, "You'd like to forgo spending time with Kasumi as your reward? How cruel of you. She'll be heart broken but I will allow it this one-"

"No!" Kotaro barked harshly, "My reward for my service, Lord Shogun, is that for this day you will do no further tests on these good people. Let the Ishida clan spend this day together and free of your torture. For pity's sake if nothing else give them just that much before you subject them to hell."

Kabuto smiled sinisterly, "I need this research done, Kotaro. It will happen sooner or later."

"You've gathered some data already, analyze _that _and fulfill my request." Kotaro said, his heart pounding in his chest.

He was very much aware that he had no power or right to order Kabuto around, he was relying entirely on . . . on what? On the promise of the madman who'd enslaved his mother that he'd be rewarded for his service?

Kotaro dared to press, "When I've rested I'll provide a full report that will show you that my service more than warrants the severity of my request, Kabuto."

"_Lord _Kabuto, Kotaro-kun. And you would do well to remember that it is _just a request_, I can refuse it." Kabuto said calculatingly, and the robed shinobi standing besides him stepped between him and Kotaro with a smirk to hide a slight apprehensiveness.

_So you're not certain you can take me. Good. _Kotaro thought. He said to Kabuto, "You can. And I can tell the Emperor, throw a fit and refuse further service because of your violation of our agreement."

"Then you and the rest of the Five would forfeit your lives, wouldn't you?" Kabuto smirked.

"Better that than to serve a lord too selfish and weak to honor his promises. My life means nothing if I have nothing to live for, Kabuto, and you don't know that I won't decide my comrades are better off dead themselves as well."

Kotaro's heart was pounding so hard he feared that he, at the mere age of seventeen might have a heart attack.

Then he smiled slightly, for some reason he was glad that he'd been so easily able to remember how old he was.

It was good to be himself again. To be clear minded and free to think.

As if the confidence that realization gave him somehow touched something subconscious in Kabuto, the man nodded his head and told the assembled subjects, "It would seem that one of the Emperor's fingers wishes to uncurl the fist and spare you for this one day. So be it, but know that on the morrow I shall work you doubly hard to make up for it. Kotaro, off you go, your wife is waiting no doubt."

"No doubt." Kotaro scoffed.

_Of course you just said I had to spend some time in her arms, and I don't think it'll be too difficult to get Kasumi to hug me for a moment and then leave it at that. _Kotaro thought to himself with a slight smirk.

As he turned to leave he heard softly, the voice of one of the Ishida daughters, the one who looked the youngest and somehow the most familiar, she whispered, "thank you, Taro-kun."

Kotaro didn't say anything he just left the lab, leaving his medic escort behind and walking under his own power.

He clenched his hands into fists at his side as she stalked though the halls.

Eri . . . her name was Eri . . . he knew that, he knew _her _somehow . . .

She'd thanked him.

But he didn't deserve it.

He'd bought them a moment's reprieve because he felt sorry for them . . . but he hadn't changed their lot, hadn't made anything truly better for them.

Kotaro was not one to act out his anger physically, so while Yukio or even Kasumi might have punched a hole through a wall Kotaro restrained himself to thought.

Thoughts of how he _could _make things better without violating the loyalty the Emperor demanded.

Thoughts of how he could possibly get everyone out of this alive.

And that was Orochimaru's greatest mistake, as far as Kotaro could see.

He'd given Kotaro back his greatest weapon, his mind.

And yes, he would use it for Orochimaru's benefit because he had to.

But he would use it for his own benefit as well because to do otherwise would make every bit the worthless subhuman trash that his father no doubt imagined him to be.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	76. Back in the Clouds

**Chapter Seventy Four**

"How do I look? Everything straight and proper?" Yomiko asked, fidgeting with her forehead protector.

"Mm." Was Shikamaru-sensei's reply, and he offered it without even looking up from the maps he was inspecting.

Naomasa smirked as Yomiko straightened her flak jacket, "Full uniform eh? Trying to impress someone?"

Yomiko blushed, "Certainly not _you_."

Nao laughed, "Of course not _me_. I was thinking more along the lines of our newest spy."

"What? You mean Yukio?" Yomiko blushed even more, "I . . . I just want him to deal with a Konoha representative in proper professional attire."

"Sorry, didn't catch that, you said what about wanting to look hot for your man?" Nao teased.

"Puh-lease, when it comes to me and men you're totally _clueless_." Yomiko said with a roll of her eyes, "Tell him, Sensei."

"Mm."

"There, see?" Yomiko scoffed. "Now come on, you're supposed to be guarding me through this thing, and shut up about it, it's not common knowledge."

Nao groaned and got to his feet. He was still wearing his normal clothing, Yukio wouldn't _see _him so he didn't need to primp up and look official.

And it dawned on him that he wouldn't have bothered anyway, Yukio was their spy and prisoner, Nao wasn't going on a date with him and neither was Yomiko, it wasn't that he was jealous or anything but it seemed a bit vain of her to get all dressed up just to receive whatever information Yukio might be bringing them.

If anything it wasted valuable time to boot.

But he wouldn't say anything about it just yet. Next time she tried to tease him about liking Hitomi he could use this on her.

As the two started away Shikamaru-sensei suddenly did look up from his maps and say to them, "By the way, treat this with the severity it deserves. Yukio is to be considered a double agent, everything he says can be a lie or a trap, don't take him at his word and don't offer him anything to imply where we are or what we're currently doing, clear?"

"Mm." The two Special Jounin said together as they left, and then they shared a laugh.

Nao looked around at the war camp, a Shinobi only war camp.

They were almost ready, almost prepared for the strike.

They were very close to what had once been Konoha, which was why Yukio arriving with news was so troubling.

Were they discovered? Would his coming somehow hint to Orochimaru's people how close they were?

These were things Yomiko needed to find out. Yukio would be kept under an illusion of an empty office room where he and Yomiko would meet, everything he did and said would be audible to Naomasa and Naomasa would watch to be sure that the double agent didn't do anything to hurt Yomiko.

If he so much as twitched Nao would put him down like a dog.

* * *

Yuu swallowed hard as he approached the tavern that his sister and Takumi used to share and live in together.

Now she and their children would live there alone.

Tomoko squeezed his hand and asked, "Are you ready?"

"I . . . should do this alone." Yuu whispered.

Tomoko looked a little surprised and a little hurt, but she nodded. "I . . . understand."

Chiwa frowned, "What are we supposed to do?"

"Just make your way around town, enjoy the sights. I'll find you two when I'm done here." Yuu said.

Tomoko hesitated, then nodded. "Come on, Chiwa. We may have lost but they're treating it like a victory, everyone's just glad that the people who've come back have come back."

Chiwa hesitated, then nodded. She gave Yuu a pat on the shoulder and followed a hesitant Tomoko away.

Yuu swallowed again and walked to the door of the tavern.

It was closed, Kaori and the children would probably join in the celebration going on.

It was milder perhaps than one celebrating victory would have been, but as Tomoko had said the people were just happy that so many had come back.

Many . . . but not enough, two who mattered so much to Yuu had not come back.

Selfish perhaps to value them above everyone else, were the friends and family of all the others who had failed to return any less important?

But Yuu supposed it wasn't about how important every life was, indeed every life had value.

But his own friends and family . . .

The door to the tavern was locked so he phased through it, nearly running into Takako as the small child ran after her twin brother Takashi screaming angrily at him but saying no comprehensible words.

But both of them forgot their quarrel when they saw Yuu and they rushed over to him excitedly to see if he'd brought them anything from the war.

Yuu considered himself a sensitive enough man but he wasn't the sort to cry.

Still knowing the only thing he'd brought his nephew and niece was the knowledge of their father's death was enough to send the beginnings of the unfamiliar sensation through his face and his eyes watered.

Kaori was massaging the sides of her head as she came down the stairs.

His sister was now some seven months pregnant, a _third _child who'd grow up without a father and this one would never even meet him.

Yuu didn't know if his expression betrayed too much, but Kaori froze when their eyes met.

"Yuu." She whispered.

He nodded slightly.

"I'm glad you're safe . . ." She told him as she reached the bottom of the stairs, "But something's wrong, isn't it?"

Yuu swallowed and said, "Sit down, Kaori."

"Yuu, what is it?" Kaori asked in a tone that warned against refusal.

Yuu frowned and patted his niece and nephew on the heads, their long silvery white hair they had inherited from their mother and their darker tanned skin from their father, they were a combination of the two people who had raised him and been so important to him.

Kaori seemed to sense what he was going to say and said, "Takashi-chan, Takako-chan, go outside and play, I'll be there in a minute."

The kids, realizing their uncle had no gifts complied immediately, Takako snatching something from her brother's hand and opening the door she ran outside with it, her brother in hot pursuit.

Yuu just lightly closed the door behind the children and said, "That's . . . they should have today."

"What do you mean?" Kaori asked.

"They should have one more day not knowing." Yuu whispered, looking up at his older sister and realizing that to delay any longer was selfish and only causing her more pain.

He said, "Kaori . . . Takumi didn't . . . he isn't coming back.

Kaori stared at Yuu without speaking a word or moving at all for a moment, the only signs she'd heard him were the tears that suddenly rolled down her cheeks.

She shielded her face in her hands and sobbed softly, wiping her eyes she whispered, "I know. I felt it . . . a couple days ago . . . like a silver knife in my heart it woke me from my sleep and its poison has left me so weak these past two days."

Yuu nodded as his sister described both the weakness of their clan and the effect its mere touch left on them.

It was a rather accurate simile.

* * *

Naomasa folded his arms and listened as Yomiko began to speak to Yukio.

"You took your time." Yukio said urgently.

"My mother is unavailable, and you're not to deal with any but the two of us." Yomiko said flatly. "What do you have for us, Yukio?"

Yukio hesitated, then said, "Orochimaru is collecting the Ishida clan's daughters and has most of them, I overheard Kotaro say that he's discerned the location of the eldest."

"What?" Yomiko demanded, her air of superiority lost, "How can he know that?"

Yukio shook his head, "I do not know, but he says that he knows, and our agents must already be near to the other that remains."

"You mean Emiko." Yomiko reasoned.

"No, Emiko is already ours, brought to us by agents within the Sand ranks snuck in when Lord Gaara spared the bulk of the army as Orochimaru knew he would. Orochimaru knows more of your strategies than you think, he plans better than you think, he _wants _your armies to approach Otogakure, I overheard Kabuto telling one of our ninja."

Yomiko shook her head but Nao moved from his standing position and said, "Ask him if there's anything, _anything _he can do to save my sisters."

Yomiko frowned, Nao's earlier mood was gone and she didn't blame him. This news was dire, if Orochimaru had found out where the island was . . . "So he will take Ito Ichiteru, where from?"

"I don't know." Yukio admitted.

"Is there anything you can do for the Ishida family?"

"I doubt it." Yukio said apologetically.

Naomasa swore and kicked a rock angrily.

Yomiko put a hand on his shoulder to calm him and said, "Why is Orochimaru hunting the Ishida family? Is it to get at Naomasa?"

"He doesn't care about your friend." Yukio said, "Kabuto, I don't know why he wants them but he wants them, he's been working on the youngest daughter almost nonstop since he got his hands on her."

"The bastard." Naomasa snarled, "I will _kill _him!"

Yomiko shook her head, wishing Nao would be quiet as she carried on talking to Yukio. Yukio couldn't hear him because of her mother's Genjutsu, but _she _could hear him and he was very distracting.

She frowned and asked, "So why do you tell us this?"

"To urge you, Orochimaru knows too much, guesses too much of what you're doing, even if you can reach Otogakure you won't take it."

Yomiko asked, "Yukio is there _anything _you can do?"

Yukio frowned and said, "I don't know. I promise I'll try to help them but I can't risk myself or them in some damned escape if that's what you want."

"No, just . . . if you can do anything to ease their burdens, distract Kabuto from them in any way, I don't know." Yomiko admitted.

Naomasa said, "We know about Ichiteru, which of my sisters isn't taken yet?"

Yomiko relayed the question and Yukio said, "He has Emiko, Eri, Ichiteru and Aneko in addition to the father and mother which Kotaro delivered just last night."

"_Kotaro _delivered?" Naomasa roared angrily and Yomiko turned to him angrily.

"Get Shikamaru-sensei, he'll know what to do, Naomasa!"

"I can't leave you alone with him!" Nao protested.

"You're in no state to guard me, you're too focused on your own problems _as usual_!"

Nao seemed to rock back on his heels and shook his head, "I'm sorry, just . . . carry on, but don't send me away, I need to hear everything he says Yomiko."

Yomiko shook her head in irritation, and turned back to Yukio.

"Do you have any idea why Kabuto wants the Ishida family?"

"No, none." Yukio said, "But he wants them just badly enough that I don't think it's trivial. He doesn't know about these exchanges so I don't think he's trying to send you on a wild goose hunt."

"Apart from ransom what can he accomplish by kidnapping a bunch of rich women?" Yomiko asked.

"Again I don't know, but if you can I would implement security for the remaining daughters." Yukio said.

"Even if we had a means of contacting them I doubt we'd have any means of protecting them. Besides it might just be a way for Orochimaru to detect their locations."

"He already knows." Yukio said warily, then turned away, "There's something else, something really important. Ishida Eri . . . she wasn't broken. She probably doesn't even know that we know . . . but we have members of the Yamanaka clan in the capital and they were able to learn from her that there is a pro-Konoha resistance cell that had planned to help see the city fall. They were in contact with Lightning, they sought contact with you, and I came to you in part because they're going to be rounded up tonight. There is no more time."

Yomiko felt her chest tighten, "We don't even know who they are."

"Lightning would." Yukio said, "Contact them, tell them."

"I'll see if that's something we can manage." Yomiko admitted. "I just hope it isn't too late."

* * *

Tomoko smiled as they walked through the celebration, even though she was sad about the friends she'd lost and that Yuu didn't need-or want-her support when he told his sister about Takumi.

She _understood _that she probably had no business being there anyway, and if she had been there it would have been for Yuu more than Kaori, even though she liked Kaori just fine she _loved _Yuu.

She turned back and glanced at Chiwa, "Not a bad celebration for a . . ." She trailed off when she realized the shorter woman wasn't there . . .

"The heck did you run off to?" Tomoko wondered. In the crowd Chiwa could be anywhere she supposed but the woman couldn't just run off, Tomoko would have to find her.

* * *

Ukita Minako smiled as more customers came into her husband's shop and without a word from the customer she understood what they were there for and pointed towards the ever shrinking display of fireworks.

"We're almost out of the really good ones," She warned.

As the day drew to a close people were, for whatever reason, buying up fireworks.

She guessed the safe return of most of the army was enough, even if they'd lost the Daimyo had brought them back before a mere defeat could become a massacre.

He'd made a tough decision and turned his back on a fight he couldn't win, leaving it for those who had more of a vested interest to handle their own affairs. Even though she was born in the Lands of Fire Minako couldn't help but feel like, even if she would have liked to see her homeland freed, it really was sort of Fire's own problem if they were going to free themselves.

Even if the ninja were coming back it wasn't as if there were some popular uprising to throw the Emperor out of their country.

Minako would have respected Daimyo Taiko if he'd been telling the truth when he said that he couldn't in good conscience continue fighting for a cause not their own. She'd _wanted _to believe that, but she just knew better.

Nobody could lie to her, nobody could act dishonest without her knowing it. It sometimes made life awkward, and in fact just that morning when she asked her husband if he thought her new dress made her look fat she'd gotten a rather unpleasant surprise when he _claimed _it didn't.

She'd been stealing glances in the mirror every chance she got ever since, unlike her sister Aneko she just couldn't live with herself if she put on weight.

_Well Aneko had a kid, _Minako thought, _she didn't exactly let herself go. You don't have that excuse . . . oh god, what if you do? I mean what if _I _do? I'm not pregnant am I?_

The very thought of some ugly, vomiting, pants defecating monster living in her stomach like some sort of intestinal parasite made Minako want to scream and the sudden panic even made her feel a little woozy.

And her wooziness made her more concerned, but she calmed herself reminding herself that it was impossible for her to get pregnant; she was rich. You couldn't do anything to a rich person that they didn't _want_.

It was a mild source of comfort but a woman who could constantly sense the dishonesty in the world around her had to be honest with herself; she hated kids and she liked being rich, that in itself didn't make her a bad person.

But good lord diapers, she wasn't changing any diapers and she wasn't wasting money hiring a nanny to do what she, as a mother aught to be able to handle . . . the child couldn't reasonably be expected to be potty trained right away but . . .

She almost didn't notice another customer enter the store, but she very quickly paused her thoughts to offer the strange woman the smile of greeting she deserved.

The woman looked strange indeed; very short, almost shorn hair and covered in scars she wore a Cloud field uniform that looked like it's seen a lot less fighting than she had and Minako even spotted a few still healing bruises.

_Must have been with the army, and since she's got breasts she's clearly not a man so she can't be a soldier or a Samurai, she must be a shinobi. _Minako concluded.

She offered a slightly stronger smile to hide her wariness, ninja were always just pure clouds of dishonesty . . .

But this woman didn't seem to be exuding lies . . . at least not any more so than the average citizen.

So Minako found it just a bit easier to smile. Being around dishonesty made her weary so she didn't like being around ninja. It wasn't that she was prejudiced against them or disrespected what they did, they just sort of sucked the energy out of her.

But this woman was a minor drain if that, and she had been fighting for her country after all.

She approached the counter and stated, rather than asked, "Ishida Minako?"

"No, it's Ukita Minako . . . do I know you?" Minako asked.

"No. You used to be Ishida Minako?" The woman asked.

"Yes . . . who are you?" Minako asked.

The woman seemed a little confused now and after some hesitation she said, "I'm . . . Chiwa . . . um . . ."

"That's a nice name." Minako said casually, considering that if she did have a child Chiwa might not be such a bad name for her-not that she wanted a child at all of course, and if she were going to have a child it'd be a boy because that'd giver her husband an heir and she'd never have to have another child.

"Um . . ." Chiwa said, "I need to ask you about something."

"Go ahead." Minako said with a shrug, "I don't normally man the register-we let our regular girl off to see her husband back-but I know the stock and I know where everything is so . . ."

"It's really not anything to do with your store." Chiwa admitted. "It's more um . . . to do with your family."

Minako's patience was starting to ware just a little and she said, "Well then please be brief, I don't really want to think about the word 'family' right now. Wait, did my husband cheat on me with you? Are you here because you're pregnant with his child?"

"I-what?" Chiwa gawked.

"Because that'd be _great_, it'd mean I wouldn't have to do it." Minako really hadn't meant to say that part out loud.

But it was just as well because the sudden awkwardness of the topic seemed to give Chiwa the resolve she'd been lacking up to that point and she said firmly, "No ma'am, I've been sent to talk to you of a matter regarding your _other _family, the Ishida clan to which you were born."

"Oh them. I haven't seen them in ages, mother and father visit sometimes but not much since the war ended. Why, has something happened?"

"Yes." Chiwa said, "I need to talk to you in private."

"No?" Minako offered. "I'm sorry but if you're here on behalf of people who don't even want to spare the time to come themselves I can't be bothered."

"I could be here on behalf of your parents, you just said they visit."

"Sometimes, and you're not here on their behalf." Minako sighed. "Just be clear and honest, what do you want?"

Chiwa frowned nervously, she took a deep breath and then she spoke rapidly. "I want to get you to willingly allow yourself to be transported through reverse summoning to the capital city of Otogakure where you'll be experimented on to see what makes you capable of doing the things you do without using chakra even though I don't think you do anything weird it's really not up to me because it's better they cut you than me and I'm not really asking." She took a breath, clearly more out of necessity than desire and prattled on, "You need to come one way or the other but if you go willingly they'll tell me I failed and I know they'll just cut at me again and I don't want them to and you seem like kind of a shallow person anyway so probably nobody's going to miss you and I'm prepared to kill your husband if you resist me, and I know that doesn't earn me much sympathy but I really don't want them to experiment on me anymore and they told me if I did this they wouldn't so obviously I'm going to do this even if I have to take you back by force."

Minako smiled weakly, "That was quite a mouthful . . . and you were being honest too, that's troubling."

"I'm sorry if the situation is too much for you but it's just how things are." Chiwa said.

"No, when you said I was shallow you were being honest . . . I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're just talking out of your own perspective so you can't really be dishonest even if you're wrong . . . because I'm really a very nice person."

"Then very nicely save me the trouble and torture of telling them why I couldn't bring you back willingly."

"No?" Minako offered, and Chiwa's eyes turned red.

"I don't think you're getting this . . . I'm _really _not asking." Chiwa said, and her hand shot across the counter, grabbing Minako by the sleeve.

Like a sort of fire red lines began to spiral over the arm holding Minako and half of Chiwa's face.

The white of Chiwa's eyes around her irises became red and she said, "I can't go back without you, and I can't _not _go back, and I can't reverse summon you if you don't agree to it so you either agree or-"

"Chiwa here you are I . . ." Another woman, this one a stormy ball of dishonesty came into the shop and seemed relieved until she noticed the black tattoos that had drawn themselves of Chiwa's arm.

"The hell is this?" The other woman asked in a very dangerous sounding voice.

Chiwa's hands began to shake with rage and she snarled, "If you're smart Tomoko, you'll walk right back out that door. I needed to be taken in by you guys before, so I lost our little fight but I can and I _will _kill you if you try to stop me!"

Minako was torn.

She wanted this Tomoko to intervene on her behalf and try to save her.

But she knew Chiwa wasn't lying.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	77. Chiwa and Tomoko

**Chapter Seventy-Five**

* * *

Deep in the bowels of the labyrinth Kabuto massaged the back of his own neck as he stared at the information he'd gathered from the Ishida so far.

He needed the last of them to be certain but it did look severely as if his initial suspicion was correct.

He'd hold off on telling Lord Orochimaru of course. He had to be certain . . .

But if he was right, they might be the key to stopping the ninja army in its tracks.

Kabuto wondered when the attack would come. He knew that Lord Orochimaru wanted it, he understood the reasons why but he couldn't help feel like Orochimaru would happily trade the whole empire for Sasuke's body if he could . . .

Kabuto could not allow that, he'd spent too long trying to build this empire to let it wash away like so much chalk in a rainstorm.

_So maybe I don't tell him about this at all . . . _he thought.

_Let him make his plans, I will make my own. _Kabuto decided, looking over more papers.

The shogun slowly, perhaps with some subconscious reluctance, set his papers down and closed his eyes. _Don't get ahead of yourself, _he cautioned in his mind, _you're only _fairly _sure you're right, you don't know for sure yet._

But then . . . Kabuto wouldn't get very far if he second-guessed himself.

Perhaps he'd best start planning now, just to be safe.

But if he was right . . .

He smiled slightly; it would be fun to decimate the enemy's invading force.

* * *

Tomoko let her chains fall from her oversized sleeves and slam into the floor as her metal claws fell obediently into her hands.

It was an act of intimidation, but Chiwa did not look remotely impressed.

"This has to happen, Tomoko-san." Chiwa warned.

"Leave her be." Tomoko ordered.

"No?" Chiwa offered and laughed slightly despite the tense situation.

The woman behind the counter said suddenly, "Okay, okay, relax . . . um . . . you do realize that if you two start fighting you're only going to attract more attention, right?"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Tomoko asked.

"Oh sure it's great for you, lady!" The woman scowled, "But what about _my shop_?"

"I will kill her before help can arrive; failure is not an option for me!" Chiwa warned.

Tomoko's eyes narrowed, "Letting you succeed isn't an option for me."

"Today's not the day for this fight, Oedo . . . we'll meet again in Otogakure . . . I'm sorry." Chiwa said, and then struck like lightning, grabbing the woman by the collar and yanking her over the counter.

The woman screamed and struggled.

She was shouting, "I'll sign it, or whatever, just don't hurt me!"

Chiwa turned to face Tomoko as she attacked, whatever was going on Orochimaru couldn't be allowed to just kidnap a citizen from the heart of Lightning.

Or . . . could he?

Tomoko felt ill to her stomach but this woman was willing to go along with Chiwa.

And having a citizen kidnapped right under the noses of the ninja might just push Taiko into striking again or at least realizing that his realm wasn't safe as long as Orochimaru held power.

But . . .

Even if it might work out well for Konoha it just wasn't in Tomoko's personality to let the woman be taken.

So she sprang forward, unleashing her chains and using one to wrap around Chiwa and constrict her while the second wrapped around the clerk and pulled her backwards, towards Tomoko and away from Chiwa.

"Get out of here, run!"

"But the shop, you'll ruin everything!" The woman protested.

Tomoko fought an urge to slap her for her stupidity and told herself that it was probably just hysteria. "You'll be reimbursed by the Raikage's office for anything damaged, but your life is one thing money can't buy!"

She said this as she released the woman from her chain and moved closer to Chiwa who was actually managing to force her way out of the chain wrapped around her.

Her strength was incredible and soon Tomoko had two chains wrapped around her.

Chiwa grunted with strain but the wild look in her eyes when she saw her quarry running for the door told Tomoko that this fight wasn't over.

"It's better . . ." Chiwa was grunting as she struggled against a third chain from Tomoko's sleeve.

"Stand down!"

"It's better!" Chiwa shouted, "It's better _you _than _me_, Oedo-san!"

Four chains, Tomoko was focusing every bit of chakra she had into just restraining Chiwa, her black tattoos, like a series of tiger's stripes covering half her body were even starting to glow red as she shouted with a final effort.

One that paid off.

Tomoko was more than a bit surprised when she was thrown back into the retreating woman, her chains no longer connected to her.

No, part of them still was.

But Chiwa had actually broken the chains, the fell in a heap around her feet and she easily stepped out of them. It was a weird feeling, almost as if she'd had her arms severed.

Those chains had felt like a part of her, even if they weren't always attached to her. She's lost chains before, had them cut or broken in battle but always because they felt like an extension of herself it felt as if she'd lost something.

She'd lost both claws and one of her blades. That left her one more blade and her iron hammers.

She eyed Chiwa warily as she got to her feet. "You're not going to get away with this."

"I have to, or I have to be killed by you. There's no other way, don't you understand?" Chiwa laughed, clenched a fist with her marked hand, "They gave me so much power just to take this one woman . . . she must mean something to them, but what does she mean to you? She's nobody; let me take her out of here quietly."

"Or I can let you get hacked to pieces by a legion of ninja, samurai and angry civilians. I mean you're a spy, aren't you? A spy for the army that just beat them back over their border. I don't expect you'd be treated well." Tomoko smirked.

Chiwa smirked right back and said, "It's true, I was sent here by Orochimaru, but I'm not his spy . . . I could be yours though. Let me go, and you'll have someone on the inside, someone who'd help you if you got that far."

"Not happening."

"Don't you want to know that someone's in there watching your brother's back? I mean he's still there, isn't he? Still in the city . . . such a dangerous place."

Tomoko's lip curled into a snarl and she barked, "If he's alive now he probably doesn't need your help staying that way!"

"You can never have too much help . . ." Chiwa smiled, then suddenly pulled out a scroll, and held it out, "Don't you want to know what I was ordered to offer you, Oedo-san?"

Tomoko bristled, "Offer _me_?"

"O-Orochimaru wanted you before, he still does. You can come too . . . if you come too they'll reward me; maybe even let me go free. Then you can be a general or something, I can be free and this woman . . . well who cares about her? She's not even a very nice person."

"But she _is _a person." Tomoko said.

Chiwa smiled slightly and said, "So am I. So was your father . . . your friend Kyusaku . . . I remember him, he was there when you captured me . . . me and my students. So many people we've lost, both you and I. Give that woman to me and who knows . . . we might just get them back."

The woman Chiwa was after had stopped moving for the door and Tomoko tried to shove her towards it.

But instead, she said, "You think you can get them all back huh? Just from turning me in?"

"That's what I said." Chiwa said.

"You weren't lying though . . . how can that-"

"Get out of here!" Tomoko ordered.

"I already told her I'd go with her!" The woman snapped, "My family is in danger, and my going can not only save lives but bring them back? Despite what she says and what you probably think I'm not really a bad person."

"If she takes you don't you think you'll end up experimented on just like her?" Tomoko asked.

"You . . . raise a valid point." The woman acknowledged.

Chiwa, it seemed, was done negotiating. She sprang forward, Tomoko raised her arms as if she meant to block Chiwa's blow.

But of course she wasn't that stupid. A punch that could throw her back several feet wasn't one she wanted to block.

Instead she dove to the side at the last minute, sweeping the woman's legs out from under her; Chiwa just punched her way right through the door of the shop.

She fell sprawled into the streets; a man who'd been near the door when Chiwa went through it went to help her up.

"What's going on here?" The man asked, and Chiwa shoved a scroll into his hands.

"Good sir, I've made a business arrangement with your wife, but she's yet to sign the contract, said you'd better be the one to do it since it's your business after all."

"Uh . . . a business deal? I was gone for just an hour, Minako-chan." The man, presumably the woman's husband said, sounding bemused.

But he took the scroll and a pen from Chiwa without question.

"Stop!" His wife shouted, "Stop, stop!"

"What's wrong?" Her husband wondered.

Tomoko saw that Chiwa was smiling; she was in a position to murder the woman's husband in an instant. Tomoko herself was frozen, unsure of what to do.

She saw what was happening; Chiwa had just been given a hostage, and though there were ninja in the streets her cursed seal had receded and she looked totally normal; like a woman who'd celebrated too hard and been thrown through a door, nothing more.

Tomoko could raise an alarm perhaps, but she'd kill the woman's husband before anyone could respond, perhaps kill the woman as well . . . the young spy had no idea how to act, she couldn't save the man and she couldn't let Chiwa take the woman.

Not if doing so benefited Orochimaru.

Minako moved faster than she did, dashing to her husband and glaring at Chiwa.

"I'd better sign that, you know, in case it goes wrong you don't have to lose face, Nobuko-kun."

Tomoko drew a kunai, if Minako was going she'd just kill her, stop Orochimaru from getting whatever it was he wanted from her.

"Don't be sil-" Nobuko began but Minako took the scroll and signed it, shoving it back into Chiwa's hands the two of them disappeared in a flash of smoke.

Tomoko's kunai sailed right through the smoke and sank harmlessly into a wooden post on the other side of the street.

She pounded her fist into the dirt road and scowled.

And so Orochimaru had reach even in the heart of the Lands of Lightning.

But how? Hadn't Chiwa been interrogated by the Hishu? Hadn't Kimiko-san said the girl was okay?

Had the tactician had some strategy in mind that she hadn't shared? Had she perhaps wanted to use Chiwa against Orochimaru in some way?

Or had she hoped to find out what Orochimaru's aim was . . .

Had she just been fooled?

Tomoko had never suspected treachery from Chiwa . . . just as Yuu didn't suspect treachery from _her_.

As Minako's husband panicked over what had just happened to his wife Tomoko could only laugh.

Why did ninja ever trust other ninja?

* * *

Kankuro sat on the ground of the Taisho's tent along with his brother and sister.

Opposite them around the map the Taisho had set on the ground was lady Tsunade flanked by Aburame Shino and Sai, just as Kankuro and Temari flanked Gaara.

And sitting at the head of the group as if the long rectangular map were a table was Taisho Hirate Akira and the other generals of the army.

"My men can cut through this pass near the Black Monument. We can double time our march and arrive by tomorrow afternoon."

"We marched double time today, if you keep them up like this we won't arrive with an army in fighting condition." Temari said.

"Ninja move faster than an army of Samurai, all the same it takes us two days to reach the border, you mean to reach Otogakure in that same span of time." Tsunade said.

The Taisho nodded slowly, "Yes," he said, "I understand your concern for the men, and I assure you it is chief in my mind as well, however our arrival does not necessitate immediate attack. By arriving in the evening your ninja can secure our perimeter and the men can rest for the night; in the morning if our allies are prepared we can attack full of vigor."

Kankuro nodded vigorously, "That sounds excellent. Why are you all so hesitant?"

"Well we did sort of lose Lady . . ." Temari trailed off, glancing apologetically at Hirate.

The Taisho nodded slightly as Gaara took up Temari's sentence.

"We lost Lady Hirate to spies. Spies probably from the army we folded into our own, which means that Orochimaru might have expected us to do exactly that."

"Or he just hoped his men could sneak into our ranks in the confusion of a battle." Hirate suggested.

"Maybe, but even so those units are unreliable and may be working for Sound. There must have been some ninja to move Lady Hirate so quickly, which means the sensors didn't notice them and there could be more." Tsunade added.

Hirate Akira stared at the map and said, "I cannot simply mingle the squads to try to stop any traitors, many of them have been trained to work in a certain way."

"To remove a piece of a puzzle and replace it with three pieces from three other puzzles does not complete the picture." Shino reasoned.

"So you understand the dilemma." Hirate said, "We'll just have to trust these men to be loyal to Wind and let our main offensive rely on your ninja."

"If that's the case why not separate the army?" Temari asked, "Send the ninja on ahead of the soldiers. We'd arrive sooner without having to exhaust ourselves the whole way. We'd secure the area and rendezvous with our allies if they're there."

"And if they're not it'll be easier to make ourselves scarce." Tsunade nodded, "If we show up with an entire army we may have to attack sooner than we want or risk being attacked ourselves."

The Taisho nodded slowly and said, "All right then. I'll move the army at its regular pace; we should arrive at Otogakure roughly noon the day after tomorrow."

"Try to arrive just before sunset." Shino said.

"Huh? Why?" Kankuro asked.

"To demoralize the enemy. If they see our army arriving and nonchalantly making camp for the night as if they're not afraid of the enemy army . . ." Shino trailed off, letting them figure out the rest on their own.

Kankuro nodded. He liked it.

"It may cause the enemy to come out in the night on the offensive," Tsunade nodded, "It'd let them fall into any traps we might lay and at a minimal risk to ourselves we could chip away at the enemy's ninja force."

Kankuro saw Taisho Hirate nod slowly. He seemed unsure and Kankuro felt like he knew why.

Hirate Akira's wife had been taken, what would happen to her while he traveled to Otogakure?

What would happen to her when he _arrived _at Otogakure?

Temari seemed to sense the same thing and she said, "Don't worry, Akira-san. When we arrive we'll send people in right away to inquire after Emiko-san, our best infiltrators. If it's possible to liberate her we will, and if it isn't we'll at least try to get someone close enough to make sure she isn't used as leverage."

The Taisho smiled slightly and nodded, Kankuro was surprised that he just trusted Temari like that.

That he'd just trust a ninja.

He supposed the bonds formed in exile were strong indeed . . .

And he wondered about another woman . . .

How would Sachiko or Syako or whatever she was calling herself now do in Otogakure once it came under siege?

Would she fight for her precious Sound Empire? Would he have to face her in battle?

Not that it'd be _much _of a battle, but what would she do?

Would she just turn traitor again and switch allegiances when the allies started to win?

_What will you do?_

"I'm going to try to bring down this wall here," Tsunade pointed to one of the walls on the map and Kankuro was shaken from his internal questions.

He smiled weakly, for a brief instant he'd thought Sachiko had answered him.

Tsunade said, "If my slugs and the Aburame clan's insects can observe both of the city's gates we can keep an eye on troop deployments perhaps before the enemy is even aware of a Shinobi presence. Enemy ninja will be harder to track of course since they don't need gates, but our sensors should be able to handle that."

"Agreed." Gaara said, "But what about Aburame Kurai?"

"Akuma Kurai." Shino corrected a little too sharply for Kankuro's taste, but Gaara didn't seem upset.

In fact Gaara nodded his head and said, "My apologies. But the fact remains that Akuma Kurai's insects might detect or even be drawn to any Aburame insects in the area. It may be better for me to use my sand eyes to watch the gates. When properly hidden it can be very discreet."

Kankuro felt like Gaara was demeaning himself by apologizing but then nobody wanted to be reminded that one of their clan members was a traitor so he didn't totally fail to understand Shino's irritation either.

"That's accurate; his swarm would definitely recognize my own if they came in contact." Shino said, sounding milder himself, "However it's not a cause for concern. From what we understand Orochimaru keeps the Five in the palace, the odds of Kurai's bugs interacting with my own are minimal. When we arrive if our allies are there we may have something better at our disposal, but I didn't want to assume your Sand Eye technique for the task, Lord Kazekage."

Kankuro relaxed a bit. Whether he was making peace or not at least Shino was acknowledging that Gaara, while an option in gate surveillance, would be better spent devoted to other things like the strategy.

An Aburame really would be best for the gates since his bugs could watch it without him needing to focus his attentions, while if Gaara kept an eye on the gate the whole time he'd be distracted.

It was just a matter of practical thinking, Kankuro told himself.

But then if they were thinking practically they shouldn't be attacking Otogakure in the first place.

* * *

Kabuto paced back and forth outside the channeling chamber, but it seemed to Hikaru that it was out of excitement more than anything.

It was unusual because Hikaru wasn't sure if he'd ever seen Kabuto excited about anything, the Shogun was usually very good about keeping his emotions hidden.

Maybe he didn't realize just how dangerous his statement had been. Hikaru ventured, "It seems like a lot to risk, my Lord."

"Setting the experiments loose on the street is always a fall back notion." Kabuto assured him.

"One that requires rounding them up again." Hikaru assumed, realizing perhaps why Kabuto was looking for alternatives.

"Not necessarily. Why not just let them roam? It would be interesting to see what happens to them if they laid claim to this city; since we're safe from them they would not interrupt my experiments and they would keep unwanted visitors away."

"Are you serious?" Hikaru wondered, though he wasn't condemning the idea. "Aren't you still experimenting on some of them?"

"The valuable experiments wouldn't be set loose." Kabuto said as if reassuring him. Honestly Hikaru couldn't have cared less.

Letting Otogakure become a city of lunatics and monsters had its appeal . . . after all it was one already; this would just get rid of the few normal people left.

Nobody needed them. They were experiment fodder.

"It's not my first resort," Kabuto said, "It's just not a terrible outcome. It would give the surrounding villages all sorts of legends to tell for generations as well, perhaps they'd start to revere us in a strange sort of way."

"Hard to govern a nation from a place no retainer would visit."

"I could astral project, then coming to this city would become something of a holy pilgrimage to see the Shogun and Emperor face to face, one that only the truly faithful would survive."

"Indeed." Hikaru chuckled. "But that's if this plan of yours fails, correct?"

Kabuto laughed, "Plan might be too strong a word. Notion is more like it, I haven't confirmed anything yet."

"You need more of these Ishida characters?" Hikaru asked.

"Yes, only the last one remains to be collected, I'll dispatch Kotaro for her tonight."

"Isn't that too soon?" Hikaru asked, "I thought his host needed to recover."

"To infiltrate an island without proper ninja protection and snatch a woman without Shinobi training requires no serious amount of chakra, Kotaro-kun will get the job done efficiently. Besides he can burn past the safe reserves if he needs to; it's fine if his host dies afterwards. As long as I have my subject that is, and Kotaro will bring her to me without a problem."

"I don't doubt." Hikaru lied. "I wonder though, is letting him be himself really wise?"

"It's achieved fantastic results so far." Kabuto shrugged, "Besides the controllers were difficult to look after, and it was one of them that helped Hatake Kakashi escape and damaged Kasumi's body."

"As I well know," Hikaru assured his master, "but the boy isn't loyal. He'll betray you the instant he feels comfortable doing so. He may even attack you, after all it's Lord Orochimaru who inhabits his mother's body, not you, Lord Kabuto."

Kabuto smiled, "Concerned for me? Well that's why you're here; in the very unlikely event that they attack me you can respond and restrain them."

"I am not sure I can restrain Kotaro, least of all if he receives help from the others. How _are _the others anyway?" Hikaru wondered. "Still loyal?"

"Shiroi will be loyal until the day she dies, and I've taken steps to see that the rest of them will be as well. Kurai will serve me so long as Shiroi does, Kasumi is like putty in my hands and Yukio for all his pride is such a puppet that I needn't even try to use leverage to win his loyalty . . . but of course I can, and I will."

"No point leaving things to chance, hmm?" Hikaru asked.

"Indeed. This empire wasn't founded on chance." Kabuto said darkly. "I won't let if fall by chance either, this city will never belong to the Leaf again, the Sound Empire will remain strong."

Hikaru shrugged. "It was a lot of work building it, I don't see any reason to let it fall apart."

"Precisely." Kabuto smiled. "It's about time to send Kotaro-kun on his way, about time that the Ishida family was fully reunited under my roof . . ."

* * *

**To Be Continued . . .**

* * *

**Note: **Obviously the absence of updates over the past . . . 3 months deserves some explanation . . . a very good explanation . . . that explanation is . . . a wizard did it.


	78. The Twilight

**Chapter Seventy-Six**

* * *

Sakura watched as Naruto stared into the distance.

Konoha was not quite in sight yet, but if they marched through the night, they'd be there just before dawn.

Time was running out . . . and Sakura had to know.

She thought she should know better than to question Naruto . . . but . . .

"Cold tonight, isn't it?" Naruto asked her, probably sensing the presence of another. Even if he wasn't a sensor he was still a ninja, and all ninja were trained to know when someone invaded their space uninvited.

"Hope it isn't ominous." Naruto commented.

"You think it could be?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged.

"Naruto . . . Hokage-sama," Sakura said slowly, trying to think of just what to say.

"We can't let the resistance be destroyed, don't worry. I'll get them out myself if I have to." Naruto commented.

Sakura shook her head slowly, even though Naruto's back was turned and he couldn't see it.

She said, "That's not what I . . . I mean look I _care _about the resistance but I care about the people here now more, and I care about Sasuke-kun on his way to the capital if things went well. I care about the people we left back on the island and . . ."

"You're wondering why you're not still back there?" Naruto asked without turning to face her.

"No. I understand why we had to come back . . . but I don't understand why we had to wait."

"You wanted to launch the attack, didn't you?" Naruto asked.

"I did. But I wasn't planning a mad dash. We should be raising local support at every stop, using our Samurai to our advantage, showing the people that we're not just the old ways or a new order; we're a mixture of the two that they can trust and stand behind. We should have taken Sunagakure and held it, used it as a rallying point for anyone who dissented against the Empire and in time, when our numbers had returned, taken Orochimaru down once and for all."

Sakura folded her arms, "But you contacted us and said we had to go now, had to meet you in the city of Waves and be ready to hit Konoha as soon as possible. I just want to know why . . . why now?"

"Lighting wasn't going to wait." Naruto said calmly. "No . . . that's not the real reason. The truth is . . . where I was it's easy to lose track of time. I thought a year then we return and find Orochimaru's already set to fall from uprisings or something."

"And where were you? Where were you that you couldn't have been with us or seen firsthand what was going on? I'll be honest Naruto, I sort of expected you to show up with some army you'd met during one of your adventures in a foreign land or something, _anything_. You alone . . . I won't deny that I felt like we could win with just that . . . I still do . . . but I have to know that we're right to."

Naruto finally turned to face her and asked, "What do you mean? You think we _shouldn't _win?"

"Are we any better? We let Orochimaru have the world for four years. Out of what, spite? To teach them a lesson for hating us?" Sakura shrugged, her tone wasn't aggressive. She knew that wasn't the cause, but she needed to hear Naruto tell her just what made this time special and how they would answer the accusations of all those who had lost over the four year period, all those who had suffered over that same four year period.

"No!" Naruto said firmly, "It was because four years was how long it took. You'll understand when we reach Konohagakure."

"Otogakure, Naruto. They've totally rebuilt it, it isn't even really our home anymore . . . we lost the war and now we're restarting it so we can replace the despot in command. I understand the necessity but I don't know if I see us having the right anymore."

Naruto put his hands on his hips and said, "Maybe we don't. But I know we'd never do to the people what Orochimaru did to Hara. I know we wouldn't corrupt Miyuki's mind the way he did . . . we wouldn't have taken Kakashi-sensei's son away from him and made him into some sort of sick secret police."

"Wouldn't we?" Sakura asked. "We wouldn't have experimented on Hara, sure. But we would have sent him on missions and expected him to put his life and his body in peril, he could have ended up more mutilated from that than he is. We would have conditioned Miyuki's mind, heck that's exactly what we've been trying to do to her since she was a kid-"

"No!" Naruto said angrily, "We've tried to help her get past what happened to her, not inflict that same evil on others in a different form!"

"I know, but we still would have made her into something we considered socially acceptable, taught her to bottle up her past and keep it out of sight so it wasn't inconvenient for us or for her. And Kakashi-sensei's son is a ninja, for the right price he would have done for us and our village's clients exactly what he does for Orochimaru."

"Kidnapping an entire family for experimentation? I have a hard time believing Granny would have taken that contract; and I know I wouldn't have."

Sakura shook her head, "I just don't know that we're any better than Orochimaru at this point. Even if he is pure evil, we let him have his way with this world for four years. In all that time we thought about coming back sometimes, but we never did it."

Naruto said, "A successful attack after four years is worth more than a thousand failed attacks for the other three."

Sakura shrugged. "Even if we know that, will the people?"

Naruto frowned and said, "They don't have to understand, they just have to live without fear of experimentation or worse. If we need to hand power over to the Samurai, or label ourselves as the same for the sake of the people's peace of mind I'm willing to do so, but I wont see any more kids . . . changed."

Naruto frowned, "Don't you think I'd have come back long ago if I knew? I had no idea what was happening, no concept of the time that was passing."

"Just what were you doing?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

Naruto didn't really answer her, he just said, "Don't give up Sakura-chan. This is the end, we're almost there. I need everyone by my side ready to fight."

"I'll be there, Naruto . . . and I'll do my best." Sakura said. "But I still need to know why. You haven't answered my question; where did you go? Why did you wait? You say you waited four years because it took four years, well what took you four years? Did you train? Did you raise an army we don't know about? Did you write graffiti over some other village's sacred monuments?"

Sakura asked these things as calmly as she could then finally it was too much to contain herself; she shouted, "What the _hell _did you do? What did we wait for?"

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, then he said, "You waited until I could find a weapon that would stop Orochimaru without having to risk killing everyone around me."

"And did you?" Sakura asked.

"I think so." Naruto said.

"You _think _so?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Fine then, I _know _it." Naruto said.

"And what is it?" Sakura asked.

"You'll see it when we get to Konohagakure . . . and you'll see the place is still home, Sakura-chan . . . or at least it's going to be."

"What about Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"What about him?" Naruto seemed caught off guard.

"He's been in charge in your absence, he's planned most of our strategies . . . does he know about your new weapon?"

"No." Naruto admitted.

"Don't you think you should tell him?" Sakura asked.

"I can't let anyone know, if I were going to tell anyone you can bet I'd have told you first." Naruto said.

"I'm not the one dying of stress, Naruto. Shikamaru's like a star that's burning out; I've examined him myself, I can see it. He's more likely to die from the stress of all this than he is to die of any enemy's blade. He's practically our only strategist, Naruto. He's utterly livid about hearing that Ishida's entire family, our oracle Emiko included, has been captured. If you've got any ray of hope to offer him . . ."

Naruto frowned.

"He'll just have to have faith. I can't tell you guys yet . . . I have to show you. It's just one more day, Sakura."

Sakura frowned, "A lot can happen in a single night, Naruto. Shikamaru is our friend . . . hell, even more yours than mine. What if your plan has a flaw that he could have fixed if you'd told him? How will he feel _then_? How would _I _feel if you got yourself killed

Naruto frowned, and Sakura drove home her point.

"If we'd been open with our plans this war would have been won four years ago."

Naruto smiled slightly, and she felt relieved.

He'd tell her his plan, he'd tell Shikamaru, and they'd be able to-

"I disagree." Naruto said softly, turning away. "Even if you hate me for it. Be ready Sakura-chan because it won't be easy, just know that if we'd come any sooner it also wouldn't have been possible."

* * *

Ito Taiki folded his arms as he watched the sun set over the exiled island.

The days weren't exactly the highlight of his young life, but at least there were other children to play with. He still practiced his martial arts in the mornings and his studies weren't neglected outright, but his mother _had _encouraged him to take the time to relax and just enjoy this as something of an extended vacation.

And the boy didn't mind doing exactly that. Most of the children were either descended from ninja or from samurai so most of them had at least a passing familiarity with martial arts and tactics.

Taiki didn't usually got for games like Shogi, but it seemed to be at least mildly popular here, and at least it was a game. Taiki had played a few games with other kids on the island, winning and losing at about an equal measure.

His current opponent however had put him on his back foot from the start and seemed to be doing so effortlessly.

It would have been embarrassing because she was both younger and a girl-as all boys know, girls are inferior at virtually everything-but the other kids assured him his loss was all but guaranteed when playing against Nara Sumiko.

Taiki felt like maybe he was doing well though, from the start, she'd made her every move without a single moment's hesitation, but currently she had been thinking of her move for a few minutes.

He must have ruined her strategy or something. That pleased him.

Not that he liked beating smaller kids, it was just neat to have the one sided game take a twist.

It was never fun when one side won too much or too quickly.

"Finished." Sumiko said, calling Taiki's attention away from the sunset and back to the table.

He frowned, "Huh. So much for turning the tide."

His opponent didn't offer any words in response, she just sort of shrugged.

Nara Sumiko really didn't say much at all in fact; Taiki had hoped she'd talk about the adventures she must have had.

The girl had arrived summoned along with a large talking deer having apparently succeeded in sneaking off with the army and-some of the other kids claimed-participating in the fighting.

It made her something of a local hero, but she was very quiet about it all. Tai supposed she probably agreed to play Shogi mostly out of a desire to be left alone to a quiet game, though many other children had watched them at first, as the game dragged on they all gradually lost interest and ran off to do other things.

Tai might have gone along too but the game was taking so long mostly because of him; and it wasn't in the young Samurai to just surrender.

And not just because his opponent was a girl, but because he was the son of Ito Yoshi, the Taisho of the armies of Water.

Samurai didn't back down, sons of Samurai needed to be strong and the sons of generals needed to be even stronger.

Taiki rubbed his chin for a moment and considered. Unlike Sumiko who seemed able to move each peace immediately on her turn, Taiki needed to give it real thought.

He frowned . . . what move to make next?

Sumiko's brow furrowed and she glanced towards the setting sun. "Hurry." She ordered.

Taiki nodded, recognizing that it would be dark soon and Sumiko should probably be getting home.

Maybe he should offer to walk her home . . . not that there was anything to be worried about on the island.

* * *

Yuu shook his head slowly, "I'm sorry, Kaori . . . I . . . I couldn't do . . ." He fell back against the door, his strength leaving him, "He just . . ."

Kaori's eyes were hard and she whispered, "Who did it? Did you kill them?"

Yuu finally felt his own tears roll down his cheeks as he shook his head. "No . . . I didn't."

Kaori's response shocked him.

"Good." She said coldly. "You've saved him for me. Who was it, Yuu?"

Yuu shook his head, "You're in no condition!"

"Today." Kaori's green eyes blazed but still wept as she stood, "I am in no condition _today_, brother! But when this child is born and my body is restored the bastard will know the meaning of every damned letter in the world "revenge" I will see to it!"

"_I _will see to it!" Yuu said quickly, "It's already set up, a traitor in the enemy army will-"

Kaori slammed her fist into the table and hissed, "I won't risk you too! You're done, the war is over for you."

"The damned Daimyo saw to that!" Yuu said angrily, "He turned tail to run, as if supporting our allies meant nothing to him you would think that at least avenging our men would matter a bit but he showed himself a coward!"

"He showed himself loyal to himself and his interests, that has ever been Lord Taiko." Kaori said darkly.

"He is a traitorous bastard who fancies himself Emperor. In his mind all the land of Fire belongs to him because of his marriage, he'll let our allies exhaust themselves winning his prize." Yuu said, glad that the subject had changed.

Of course, it was stupid to think his sister could be deflected from the death of her true love, the father of her children

"When I give birth I'll hunt this man down, Yuu. Without Lord Taiko's permission if necessary. Please tell me who it was."

Yuu frowned and said, "The trap is ready to be sprung, Kaori, he won't get away. I won't let him."

If he told her who she'd just worry.

But Yuu knew he could do this . . . he would kill the Tsuchikage.

Kaori was quiet, and she whispered, "I suppose I have to let you do this . . . you're the inheritor of our clan's destiny after all . . ." She looked away and said, "All right then . . . but promise me you wont go alone. Take Tomoko and anyone else who will go, is that understood?"

"Yes . . ." Yuu said.

"And Yuu . . ." Kaori whispered.

"Yeah?" Yuu asked.

"Don't make me have to avenge you. You know our clan's greatest secrets, and with Tomoko-chan's help you'll probably be the head of a restored Yurei clan one day." His sister told him, and in light of the situation, he let her comment about Tomoko's "help" go unchallenged.

After all, it wasn't like he wouldn't _like _Tomoko's help when it came to making a family of his own . . .

Kaori looked at him, her green eyes almost glowing with intensity as she said, "In order to do that you have to survive. Show this killer the wrath of our clan and survive. Is that clear?"

"Of course." Yuu said.

Kaori frowned and whispered, "Follow Tomoko."

"Hmm?" Yuu raised an eyebrow.

"After you've killed the killer . . . follow Tomoko-chan, and trust her."

"Trust her?" Yuu frowned, "Why wouldn't I?"

Kaori smiled slightly, "Good question. The truth is there should be nothing that would ever bring her loyalty or love into question, but even I questioned Takumi and it cost us years. Just know that the person you love has reasons for doing the things they do, so trust them. And remember, even your sister was a Konoha shinobi for a little while. It didn't change who I was."

Yuu frowned, not sure what she was talking about really.

He still felt sort of hollow, and he imagined Kaori might just be rambling now, trying to cope with what had happened, perhaps even trying to push him and Tomoko together for fear that things might be cut short for them as they had been for her and her husband.

Yuu frowned . . . he supposed it wasn't horrible advice . . .

But what was that comment about being a Konoha shinobi supposed to mean? Yuu knew Tomoko used to be with Konoha, but she'd left them, that part of her life was over wasn't it?

* * *

Kotaro sighed as he stepped into the room of channeling chambers, reminded again of catacombs.

Kabuto was practically wringing his hands with anticipation, receiving another test subject must have caused it.

He was like some sort of collector desperate to complete his set . . . Kotaro supposed it could be worse though.

This time the mission should be peaceful, his host body would be at the island ready to move. With nothing more skilled than a Chuunin on the island he should be able to evade capture or suspicion long enough to get it, get Ichiteru to sign a contract that should have been prepared and take her back to the capital.

"One other thing," Kabuto mentioned, "I'm growing curious about the progeny of these women. I've sent word to the Land of Earth to have Mori Aneko's child sent here, similarly I expect you to be sure to bring back Ito Ichiteru's progeny."

Kotaro scowled, "Are you serious? Without me you would not even know where this woman is, I think that alone should show you that I'm better left to my own devices and certainly my own judgement. I'm not abducting _children _for you."

"Why not? Isn't everyone someone's child?" Kabuto chuckled, then he became very serious. "You'll do it." He said.

Kotaro scowled and stepped into the chamber.

He knew Kabuto was right . . . he could not afford not to obey him.

* * *

**To Be Continued . . .**

* * *

**Note**: Okay, okay, that last note was just a joke. Honestly, have you ever gone so long without doing something that it stops being part of your routine, and even though you intend to do that something, it is so far removed from your day-to-day that you don't even realize you could be doing that something until you've run out of time? Then, in the rare instances where you do find the time to do this thing you've gone so long without it that you find it difficult to get back into the groove of things, and in fact, your attempts yield less than preferable results?

Well yeah, that's pretty much what happened with the updates for Old Souls; at one point I was so busy I couldn't find time to write anything, then I was so used to not writing anything that it didn't even occur to me to write anything for Old Souls when I did have the time, and then when it did occur to me the results felt lackluster, or forced. However, it has been an exceptionally long time since I've updated and thus I'm posting the chapters I have finished, even though I'm not thrilled with them.


	79. Great Success

**Chapter Seventy-Seven**

* * *

The room was not overly grand, just four wooden walls and a creaky ceiling that matched the floor. Miyuki should have been refreshed just having a warm bed to sleep in, but she no longer felt blessed to be in the chapel of the Emperor.

She would be interviewed in the morning, but if she wasn't mistaken the city would be under assault by then.

Naruto-sensei and his people couldn't be far behind her, might even have arrived earlier than her.

But nobody seemed to even realize that the city was in danger.

Just as well, she supposed.

Let them be surprised.

Let Orochimaru be just as surprised when she killed him.

She starred at her wooden ceiling and wondered how it would begin . . . how it would end . . .

* * *

At that moment another former Konoha Shinobi was staring at a wooden ceiling as well.

Daisuke lay on his bed wondering about Eri.

It was taking every fiber of his being not to mobilize the resistance to rescue her. He knew it'd be a suicide mission, they might not even find her and then the last vestiges of Konoha resistance would be swept away.

Was that what the snake wanted? Was that Orochimaru's plan?

He heard a noise and sat up quickly.

It was vaguely familiar . . .

He slid out of bed and went to the window . . . he could see nothing.

But then that wasn't surprising, it was night time and the curfew was in effect. There would be no one in the streets, no one-

He saw a flash over the full moon and he knew right away.

"So the snake got sick of waiting for us to make the first move did he?" Daisuke growled and rushed for his equipment; he knew he didn't have a lot of time left.

* * *

On the exiled island Kotaro was similarly moving over the rooftops in silence.

He was surprised, the rogues had made quite a community here . . . why did they leave it? Why did they try to fight the Emperor?

_They could have stayed here in peace . . . all of the Lands of Water would have had to fall before Sound would have found this place . . ._

Kotaro didn't understand but he couldn't afford to care either.

He wondered . . . how many of these people did he know . . . how many would he be able to remember?

How many noncombatants had made it here? He assumed most of the shinobi if not all of them were on the mainland fighting now, but the place was not deserted.

There were families . . . almost totally unprotected.

A target of opportunity?

No.

Kabuto might be happier if he did it, but he was under his own judgment now and he was smart enough to know that whatever defense _was _in place would scramble on him and make his mission impossible to complete; such as it was his host body had only had a single afternoon to recover from his latest exertions he wouldn't survive a fight with a team of Genin.

Well . . . that might be a stretch, but still Kotaro saw no point in risking his mission to find out.

_Get Ito Ichiteru . . . and her child._

It occurred to Kotaro that he didn't even know what Ichiteru's child was . . . did she have a son or a daughter?

Did it matter? He was going to condemn a small child to a likely short life of testing . . .

Would it be more merciful to just kill the child and claim that something had gone wrong?

Or would Kabuto's mind readers know that and betray the secret?

If they had any sort of decency they'd keep their mouths shut . . . but then if they had any sort of decency they wouldn't work for Orochimaru and Kabuto voluntarily.

Kotaro spotted what had to be the house easily enough; it was one of the few houses to have a soldier guarding it, which only made it a slightly more obvious target for Kotaro.

It wasn't large, the whole of it might have fit into a single room of the Ishida manor, but that would just make his quarry easier to find inside since he wouldn't have to conduct a search of fifty individual rooms. It was fenced, not walled off, and that surprised Kotaro for a moment.

It was fenced and there were flower gardens . . . not the sort of thing he expected to find, but then he supposed it didn't make a lot of sense to wall off a small house in a small ninja community.

The guard presented a problem though. If Kotaro killed the man he ran the risk of the body being discovered by a random passerby or by another soldier arriving to take over the man's shift. Without walls there was no place to stash him, even if he ruined the flower beds a pedestrian out for a late night stroll would see the man lying there.

If he left him alive and the family raised any sort of alarm however . . .

He'd just have to make sure they didn't if he could, but he didn't forget the guard; he might even make himself unwittingly useful in the capture.

Kotaro felt a little twist in his stomach which he hoped was remorse over the fact that he was actually a little thrilled by the idea of pulling this off right under the guard's nose and not nerves at wondering if he could.

One more deep breath . . . the last Ishida daughter would be captured tonight . . .

Kotaro sprang, landing delicately on the roof of the house he crept over it until he found a back window left just slightly ajar.

He opened a blood capsule and summoned a small serpent, only about a meter in length.

Well . . . it was small compared to the rest of his proverbial catalogue.

He whispered, "Slip in, investigate, report."

The snake flicked its tongue then with what was probably surprising speed for anyone who hadn't seen it before, it slipped in through the window and out of sight into the house.

Kotaro judged the size of the house and supposed the snake wouldn't take any longer than a few minutes unless it was captured or forced into caution.

It would stick to the shadows, desperately avoiding the light. If necessary this particular snake had the ability to flatten itself out, looking more like a mere trick of the light, though unfortunately it wouldn't be able to move in that state.

It was incredibly strong though, so strong he remembered he called it the Ant. It sometimes helped him in assassinations, he recalled . . . he wondered how many people he'd assassinated when his mind wasn't fully his own . . .

He waited in silence, keeping his eyes on his surroundings and slowly counting down in his mind.

The snake returned by the count of one hundred and seven, it wrapped itself around Kotaro's arm and slithered up to his ear, he felt its tongue flick his ear as it whispered, "Three children, two adultsss, one is a Shinobi."

Ah, of course the Taisho's family would merit a single ninja body guard at _least_. Kotaro nodded slowly and whispered, "All right then, here's what I need from you . . ."

* * *

Ino stood near the edge of the forest looking up at the moon that so beautifully illuminated the night.

It was only since she became a shinobi that she really came to appreciate the light of a full moon. Growing up in the city of Konoha she didn't really find herself in pitch black conditions too often, there was always a ready source of light.

Back then maybe she'd thought of a full moon as something romantic and beautiful when she thought of it at all.

But years of pursuing a Shinobi career had given her a different perspective on full moons.

They were an impediment to secrecy and stealth, and tonight she hated them.

She looked across a divide of badlands easily a mile wide between the tree lines and the walls of Otogakure.

There was no way _anyone _would make it to the city and back unnoticed . . .

Arms folded the kunoichi waited by the tree line . . . thick cloud cover might provide enough momentary darkness for a good fast shinobi to clear the mile or at least reach a good hiding place . . .

Ino pursed her lips as she waited, watching the dead zone between her and Otogakure.

It was entirely possible that there was nothing she could do. She didn't like that.

* * *

Yoshino smiled, holding Sumiko's hand as the Taisho's wife apologized, "I'm just sorry you had to come collect her, my son should have known better than to keep playing into dusk."

"Sumiko-chan might be younger but she's not innocent. She's quiet as a mouse but mischievous as a fox." The girl's grandmother assured.

Sumiko looked away and at first Yoshino thought she'd upset the girl but then she heard the whining of a nearby infant.

"Baby?" Sumiko asked.

Ichiteru laughed, "That would be Saeki-chan."

"I'm so sorry we woke her." Yoshino said, bowing.

Ichiteru laughed, "No, no, she's a very light sleeper. I think she just misses her mother terribly."

"Wanna see . . ." Sumiko pleaded quietly.

Yoshino smiled at Sumiko and said, "It's really better we go, it's late Sumiko-chan."

"Please?" Sumiko pleaded.

Ichiteru smiled and said, "It's no trouble."

"Well, briefly then." Yoshino said.

"Taiki, go show Sumiko-san and bring Saeki-chan here." She explained, "She quiets down for Taiki, I have to sing to get her to sleep."

Yoshino smiled and relaxed, "Well Sumiko must really be intrigued if she was willing to speak up about this."

Ichiteru seemed concerned, "Is she shy?"

Yoshino shook her head, "No, she just doesn't like to speak. She seems to feel like words are a waste of her time, she knows them, she can speak them if she feels the need but she prefers not to. Honestly I think it's a sort of game to her; like she's playing charades with us all and seeing how well we can keep up with her. Her parents don't have much trouble but, well I must be getting old."

There was a sound, and this time Yoshino heard it.

She tensed, and looked towards the door.

There had been a clattering noise, she got up and approached the door.

She opened it slowly and saw that the guard at the gate had fallen into the dirt street.

But that didn't explain the clattering; his spear shouldn't have made that noise from landing in the soft dirt . . .

She heard it again and saw something was rattling the spear against the fence.

"What is th-" Ichiteru began but Yoshino's ninja senses had kicked in.

"Stay here, my lady. I'll investigate." The retired Chuunin said, and with extreme caution Nara Yoshino struggled to recall _any _Jutsu in the event of need.

The clattering stopped as she got nearer and instead she heard a hissing sound.

The street lamp was her only light source and it was a poor one as she scanned the near darkness for any signs of an attacker before finally kneeling down next to the guard to check his pulse.

As she reached out for him a form seemed to emerge from the shadows itself and it lashed out at her like a bullwhip.

She tried to scream but it wrapped itself around her mouth, silencing her.

She sort of felt the pain in her neck, but it numbed right away.

She didn't make a sound, she just slumped forward, unable to collapse as whatever it was that had wrapped round her held her up so that it seemed as if she were just investigating the guard.

_Damn . . . _she thought, and then everything faded to black.

* * *

Ichiteru watched as Sumiko-san's grandmother cautiously crept out towards the fallen guard.

The woman knelt down to inspect the guard, Ichiteru waited nervously to hear that the man was okay.

Or to hear what had happened . . .

But the next sound she heard was behind her. She turned around to see Taiki and Sumiko standing behind her and a third, much taller form along with them.

He was a young man and dressed like a Shinobi, but Ichiteru didn't recognize him as a member of the community or as one of the Konoha or Suna shinobi that had stayed behind.

Her heard nearly stopped and her first intention was to put the dangerous looking man to sleep.

The fact that he was holding Saeki delicately in one arm gave her no pause at all, she would snatch the girl from him before he hit the ground if need be.

The man had a small snake wrapped round his neck and held a kunai in his hand. He held it out and said, "No noise ma'am. Your little talent won't work one me. Now, politely close the door we have business to discuss and not a lot of time to discuss it."

"What do you want?" Ichiteru whispered as she closed the door behind her, slamming it slightly so that Yoshino would hear.

"Don't try to be clever, my lady." The young man snarled, "I need _you _alive, not the children."

Ichiteru froze and whispered, "Then let them go . . ."

"No."

"Then I don't see why I should cooperate with you at all." She said, and she said it in a singsong voice.

"That won't work." The shinobi said bluntly and without batting an eyelash. "You will sign this contract," He added, his snake fishing into his breast pocket and retrieving a small scroll, "You will be transported to the Imperial Palace where the rest of your family waits. You may sing there if you like."

Ichiteru asked, "Are you a messenger from my husband? Has the palace been taken?

She knew of course that that wasn't the case but if he thought he could fool her perhaps she could surprise him.

But he answered, "No. I am Hatake Kotaro, first of the Sound Five and your parents and sisters have all been invited to be the guests of my Lord. You are invited . . . and I suggest you go along with it before I am forced to resort to drastic measures."

His eyes darted towards the children.

Ichiteru said, "You will leave the children."

She wasn't asking.

He shook his head, "I cannot do that. My master expects them, though there are more than he anticipated the Jutsu will work properly all the same . . ." Kotaro seemed to hesitate, and Ichiteru hoped that maybe he was reconsidering; maybe he'd leave them after all.

But Taiki spoke up; he snarled, "The Sound Five huh? I'm not afraid of you. I saw one of your buddies get wasted by a Konoha Shinobi, and I'll bet she could do the same thing to you. You better watch out because that baby is-"

"Taiki!" Ichiteru snapped.

She didn't know how Kotaro would treat children that weren't hers.

"Kotaro-san," Sumiko whispered, "You have to take me too."

"No!" Ichiteru said quickly, "No, no, she's-"

But Kotaro whispered, "I know who Sumiko-chan is."

His voice was quiet and even a little regretful. He said, "She's right too, having seen her, I cannot just leave her. It's regrettable."

Ichiteru was shaking, she whispered, "I beg you to leave the infant."

"I cannot." Kotaro said.

"Don't hurt her." Ichiteru pleaded.

"I won't." Kotaro assured her, but added, "If you come now."

"Your master won't want her . . ." Ichiteru whispered.

"Is she your daughter?"

"No . . ."

"Is she an Ishida at all?"

Ichiteru was about to say, 'no' but Taiki snapped, "Yes! Yes she is!"

"Hirate Emiko's child then?" Kotaro demanded, he sounded worried. "Not Nao's . . ."

"Why-" Ichiteru began but Taiki interrupted her.

"Yeah, she's Naomasa's daughter! He's a Jounin now and her mom is a Jounin who killed your number Four, and they'll kill _you_ if you hurt Saeki-chan!"

Kotaro smiled slightly and whispered, "You don't look anything like Nao or Miko . . . you can't be their kid . . . did Nao marry Hitomi? I didn't think he stood a chance with her . . ."

Ichiteru's heart leapt when she saw that Kotaro's expression softened considerably.

And it sank when he held Saeki out as if he meant to drop her and said, "Nao and his children weren't on the guest list; I'll let her live if you come with me but if you refuse she dies and I'll just have to kill your son next."

"I'll go with you, just don't hurt the children. Leave them behind, please, tell your Lord that you couldn't find them, tell him anything and I'll back it up under the worst torture!" Ichiteru pleaded.

Kotaro frowned and said, "Sign the contract."

"You'll leave them?" Ichiteru gasped.

"_If_ you sign the contract now I won't take them . . . I promise." Kotaro said, looking at Saeki with a mournful expression.

Even though she wasn't gifted the same way Emiko was, Ichiteru should have known then, but she was desperate to save the children.

Her own life didn't matter, not when weighed against theirs.

She signed the scroll and there was a flash of light.

She opened her eyes in a well lit white room with several shinobi wearing lavender uniforms and several men in white lab coats.

There was a man with glasses and a hood covering a face that reminded her of a snake, and another man who seemed himself almost as serpentine sitting on a throne.

Kotaro was there too.

So were Taiki, Sumiko and Saeki.

* * *

The black silhouettes were moving about the city in force, Daisuke had counted what seemed to be six separate individuals moving from house to house.

He knew he stood no chance against six ninja, especially not the specialists they would send after him and his fellow resistance fighters.

But he wouldn't back down; they'd take him dead or not at all.

He moved silently in the darkness of his house.

He knew every step, every creak, he knew how to get around in his own home without making a noise as he crept down the stairs and took up the only weapons he could; his father's old hammer-which Daisuke never used in his work but kept nonetheless-and a single kunai.

The door knob turned slightly. It was locked, but that wouldn't stop a true shinobi.

Daisuke crouched by the bottom of the stairs with a clear line of sight to the door. He would spring and end his first attacker right away, with luck he would take some of the others with him before he went down.

There was only a moment's wait before the intruder picked the lock and the door knob began to turn, and not half a moment later Daisuke leapt out of his hiding place as the shadowy form of a shinobi crept through his door.

The ninja blacksmith had a hammer in one hand and a kunai in the other, but his opponent dodged both, leaping nimbly out of the way.

Daisuke couldn't stay in one place; his foe would counter attack now.

What would he use? A Jutsu, a weapon?

A name?

"Daisuke!" A distantly familiar voice whispered, "Daisuke it's me!"

Daisuke slowed his assault and stood still for a moment.

"What?" He whispered, "Ch-Chouji-sensei? How did you-"

"No time, Daisuke." Chouji said, his features becoming more discernable as he stood in a window's moonlight, "We need to get you and any resistance elements out of here."

"Out? Aren't you attacking the city?" Daisuke demanded.

"No damn it I'm not even supposed to _be _here!" Chouji said, "But I have to get you out."

"Wait, wait, you and your team can't possibly have gotten _in _just to get me _out_! Do some damage, burn the temples and rescue prisoners, _fight_!" Daisuke protested.

"Daisuke," Chouji whispered in a tone far harsher than Daisuke had ever heard him use, "I didn't _bring _a team."

"Then those are hunters?" Daisuke whispered, tensing for battle again. "They're looking for my people then? Why didn't they start with me?"

"Those hunters are hunting _me_." Chouji said.

Daisuke shook his head in confusion, "Why are you alone?"

"It was stupid. Too stupid. I didn't want to fail you. There's some clandestine strategy Shikamaru's coming up with and I'm probably ruining it, but I wont lose my last student. The Emperor knows about the resistance and he's planning on executing you all."

"How do you know?" Daisuke asked.

"Eri . . . they took her didn't they?"

Daisuke's eyes widened, "They brokeEri? _Eri_?" He swallowed hard and shook his head, "I should have-"

Chouji-sensei shook him and said, "Now, Daisuke! Now! We have to move!"

"No, I have to get Eri!" Daisuke said.

Chouji shook his head and told him, "We'll get her; we'll get them all when the time comes. But for now-"

Daisuke saw one of the silhouettes hit the ground outside the window and he saw several black objects slam into the silhouette.

He knew exactly what they were.

"You came _alone_?" Daisuke demanded.

"Yes . . ." Chouji whispered, spinning around.

The door swung open and a feminine form stormed in, grabbing Chouji-sensei by the collar.

Daisuke moved to support his mentor but the woman hissed, "The lengths I go to being married to an _idiot _like you! Do you know how hard it was to get into this city?"

"Well I got in . . ." Chouji said.

"And tipped off the trackers!" Ino said, releasing him and calming down a bit as she glanced out the door. She sprang outside and dragged the body of the masked man she'd killed inside and shoved him against a wall before turning to Chouji and whispering, "We have to go now or our kids are orphans!"

"We have to rescue the rest of the resistance!" Chouji protested.

"No, the hunters will expect that my dear," Ino said in a condescending tone, "Shikamaru was _sending _people to do this!"

"Then they'll be our reinforcements, I couldn't risk my last student by waiting!" Chouji said.

Daisuke interrupted and said, "I won't leave without my people."

"I won't leave without Daisuke." Chouji added.

Ino turned to face them and though he couldn't see her face well in the darkness Daisuke was positive that she was glaring.

But at length she said, "I won't leave without my husband . . . of course."

She sighed in exasperation.

She straightened up and said, "If you have anything of absolute importance grab it now. Once we're out this door we move as a unit; we get your people in order of proximity and we get out. _Ten _minutes and that's already more time than we should risk."

Daisuke nodded his understanding. He didn't need anything besides shoes; his people were in danger and he had only ten minutes to get them and get out and as Ino had said, even that was really far too long; the enemy would get wise to them sooner than that.

So Daisuke said, "I don't need anything, let's just move before it's too late."

The two Jounin nodded and Daisuke followed them into the dark streets in utter silence.

* * *

**To Be Continued . . .**


	80. Mission Accomplished

**Chapter Seventy-Eight**

"You bastard!" Lady Ichiteru screamed in a mixture of horror and hatred, "You said you wouldn't take the children!"

"I didn't take them. When you signed the contract _you _did." Kotaro answered her as calmly as he could manage. "Forgive me, but we were running out of time; it was either fool you or kill one of them . . . I'd rather not resort to that."

"Kotaro-kun, you've brought me so many guests." Kabuto said in a singsong voice. "Introductions?"

"I have precious few moments left in this body, Great Lord Orochimaru," Kotaro said, ignoring Kabuto all together though he knew it was a risky move. "I would like to request that this host be restored to the utmost of our medical abilities in light of his distinguished service."

"The host does not serve, the host is used." Orochimaru said dismissively. "Our medics are currently occupied, but if he survives I may see something done for him. You may return to your own body now, Kotaro-kun."

"First," Kotaro said, "These children are-"

"Ito Taiki, yes I know," The serpentine man said, rushing over and examining Lady Ichiteru's face, "The resemblance to the rest of the clan is obvious. The girl is unknown to me, as is the infant you hold . . . loving marriage, Lady Ichiteru?"

"Don't you touch them!" Ichiteru snarled with more ferocity than Kotaro would have expected from a woman in her predicament.

Did her love for her child and niece make her strong or did she simply not understand the nature of her situation?

"Guards." Orochimaru said in a mildly amused tone.

Two Shinobi rushed over and restrained Ichiteru but Kabuto just laughed at her and grabbed a handful of Sumiko's raven hair.

Kotaro could see he meant to pull it back and force the girl to let him have a good look at her face, no doubt searching for any Ishida resemblance.

But Kotaro reached out and grabbed his arm at the wrist before that could happen.

"No." Kotaro said coldly, "She's Nara Sumiko, you will not harm her."

Kabuto smiled and released the handful of raven locks with an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, I'm getting carried away. I assure you, I meant the girl no injury . . . but I'm not used to being gentle with test subjects."

Kotaro hesitated, then turned to Orochimaru and said, "I want her kept safe, Orochimaru-sama. Do not let Kabuto experiment on her."

"Going over my head?" Kabuto chuckled, he was amused or pretending to be for the moment and Kotaro felt his last lines of chakra burning in his host, if he stayed much longer he'd cause irreparable and probably fatal damage . . .

"The girl isn't an Ishida . . . do you need her for your experiments Kabuto?" Orochimaru asked.

"I should think she would be useful in another way actually." Kabuto said with a snide smile.

"Exactly my own thoughts," Orochimaru nodded with a similar expression, "Something more closely related to her dear parents. Your wish is granted, Kotaro-kun, now get some rest, your wife is no doubt waiting for you."

"Please stop calling her that, My Lord. I _am _in my right mind these days." Kotaro said.

Orochimaru laughed and said, "Very well. But do rest."

"First the matter of the infant." Kotaro said.

"Ah yes . . . quiet thing. Is it still alive?"

"Yes." Kotaro said, "And I will see her kept that way. Do not let Kabuto experiment on her either."

"You really should stop addressing Kabuto as if he is your peer, Kotaro-kun. He _is _your Shogun and you _will _show him respect. That includes honoring previously made agreements, such as handing over the entire Ishida clan. Is she an Ishida?" Orochimaru asked.

"No." Kotaro lied.

"Her name is Ashihara Saeki!" Ichiteru blurted, "She's the daughter of a lower ranked Konoha shinobi and a nameless commoner! She was only in my care for a time she means nothing to you, please spare her!"

"Strange name." Orochimaru smiled. "It means to alter or defy destiny, does it not?"

"I'm not sure, Lord." Kabuto acknowledged, "But if she isn't an Ishida I fail to see why she should matter at all."

Lord Orochimaru gestured for Kotaro to bring the child closer and said, "So little one . . . did your parents hope you would change the world someday?"

"I think all parents hope that for their children." Kabuto commented.

"And yet how few children really possess the ability? The worthless spawn of two worthless individuals? With such a pedigree what could she possibly accomplish?"

Sumiko seemed suddenly irritated, and Orochimaru took note.

He smiled and said, "Something you wish to add?"

Sumiko shook her head and looked more irritated. She didn't speak though.

Lord Orochimaru smiled and said, "Very well Kotaro, if you so desire a pet you may keep this commoner infant, though I assume you are aware that her continued survival now rests in your own hands."

"What doesn't these days?" Kotaro raised an eyebrow.

Kabuto had a smirk but Orochimaru let out a laugh, "Indeed, Kotaro-kun, indeed." Orochimaru nodded to someone behind Kotaro and a medic appeared to take the infant from him though he was very reluctant to let her go.

He also knew he couldn't keep his body where it was any longer, and he dismissed his Jutsu as soon as the girl was safely out of his arms.

* * *

Sumiko shook her head at Kotaro-san.

She didn't know what he was doing but she had some guesses. Maybe he was really a good person, he wanted to protect them from the bad guys and her daddy had trained him.

_But _he also let them all get captured in the first place . . . maybe because he had no choice.

_Just wait for Daddy. _She thought to herself, _He'll sort all this out._

The Emperor spoke to his subjects and ordered, "Take the Ito family to their cells, see them well guarded. Kabuto I'll trust you to be as unobtrusive with their testing as you have been with the rest of the Ishida clan."

Kabuto laughed and nodded. Sumiko didn't like him, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Disliking him wouldn't make him go away, he was a dangerous person and he wanted to hurt her parents. He wanted to hurt Nao-san's family too, he probably even wanted to hurt Ashihara, and Sumiko knew he would hurt _her_ too if he were allowed.

She decided, because there was nothing else to be done about it, to simply ignore him. She kept her attention on Orochimaru and did her best to pretend Kabuto was not there. He made her skin crawl, but she'd deal with him later.

Orochimaru was no better, but she couldn't fail to observe him with this opportunity, she needed to know what her father was up against.

"Take Kotaro's new pet away . . . put her in his chambers, explain the situation to Kasumi . . . tell her the child's life is her responsibility as well, if she fails me or defies me the child dies regardless of Kotaro's complaints."

"Understood." A tall man in a black cloak said as he followed the medic carrying the child out of the room.

That left Sumiko, several guards, and the Emperor.

Kabuto, the Shogun was still there, but Sumiko was pretending he wasn't.

Orochimaru smiled at her sinisterly, "As for you little one . . . tell me, do you know who I am?"

"No." She lied, then thought better of it, "Emperor?"

She left it as if it were an unconfirmed guess, would let him think it was based solely on what she might have learned from the conversation he and Kotaro had had.

"Indeed I am." Orochimaru smiled. "Does your daddy talk about me at all?"

"Yes." Sumiko said. That much was true, Daddy talked about Orochimaru a lot. Too much. Mommy did it too, Sumiko had expected someone . . . well, less human. She had imagined Orochimaru as a nightmare monster, but he was a person.

Though he did _not _feel like a person, his ambiance, his presence was . . . different.

"What does he say?" Orochimaru asked her, "Your father when he talks of me. What does he tell you?"

Sumiko shrugged. She wondered why they had been reverse-summoned-for that was what it had been, she'd experienced it before-to that specific room. It was risky having opened a doorway like that into the very heart of the palace, it could be opened again after all.

"How can you not know? Do you not listen, or are the words simply too big for you?" Orochimaru asked.

Sumiko shrugged again, she really wished he'd stop asking her things. She couldn't deny that while he was no nightmare monster he was frightening. She didn't generally get scared of people, her mother said she didn't have to be though she did need to be careful around strangers and she supposed the Emperor qualified as that if nothing else. Still, she was actually rather scared and that seemed strange.

"Answer your Emperor." A disembodied-not-Kabuto-because-he-wasn't-there voice said harshly, and Orochimaru raised a hand to silence the disembodied voice that didn't belong to Kabuto because Kabuto wasn't there.

"Does he speak of me in reverence child? Is he afraid of me as he should be?"

"Yes." Sumiko admitted.

Her father _was _afraid of Orochimaru, so was her mother even if she tried to hide it and that made Sumiko feel like it was okay for her to be scared too. Her parents were grownups and they were strong, if they were scared of this person it was okay for her to be scared of-

"She's a child of few words, isn't she?" Orochimaru interrupted her thoughts to ask the thin air behind Sumiko because Kabuto didn't exist.

It was something that happened rarely because she usually finished her thoughts quickly enough that people couldn't interrupt them.

_You must have been prattling on nonstop, obsessing on the subject too long. It's fine you were interrupted because it was getting you nowhere, move on. _Sumiko decided. _How do I help Mommy and Daddy now? I know there are ways. The Emperor likes the fact that Dad's scared of him, but that doesn't help much. Maybe pretend Dad would serve him if he were given the chance? Maybe make him think that Dad's going to surrender if he finds out I've been captured? How could I make him believe me?_

"I think I've counted three so far, Lord Orochimaru." A disembodied voice behind her laughed, "Perhaps the legendary Shikamaru was too lazy to bother teaching her to talk properly in the presence of the Divine."

_I can say a lot, but I don't want to. Don't make fun of Daddy, I could say a great deal and with proper etiquette but what would that solve? It makes people uncomfortable when I talk fancy and I don't like it anyway; besides if I did it to teach you a lesson it would only show that you can make me mad, I wont let you see that. _Sumiko thought to the Emperor, not to the nonexistent creepy person.

"Is that so child? Are you uneducated?" Orochimaru laughed.

"No." Sumiko answered. She was starting to hate Orochimaru more than fear him, perhaps it was because he hadn't hurt her yet though she was fairly certain he would at some point. Sooner or later, especially since five of the plans she'd been thinking up sort of ended with him killing her-but they were bad plans. None of them got past the twentieth step.

"Well . . . I won't waste my entire evening asking this scrawny little worm questions only to hear "yes" and "no" to every one of them. What shall I do with her . . ." Orochimaru trailed off in thought.

"You know Great Emperor," The voice behind Sumiko spoke up, "Lady Sachiko was once very close to this child, she even attempted to claim the girl as the price for her assistance."

"So we should keep them separated?" Orochimaru asked.

"Not necessarily. Putting them together might be more beneficial. We might even convince Sachiko that we're honoring her original request, that her cooperation would see her rewarded."

"But we don't need her cooperation." Orochimaru said simply, "She no longer serves any useful function. Frankly I had thought you were experimenting on her."

"The thought crossed my mind, but in truth she can be a very useful agent. Cutting her loose before may have been . . . ill conceived. If we can properly, truly and fully regain her . . . well we don't need her cooperation _now_, but in the future . . ."

"I see." Orochimaru smiled, "Very well. Let the quiet child stay with the Lady Sachiko for now, I leave the matter to you, Kabuto."

"You will not be disappointed." The voice assured.

Maybe Orochimaru wouldn't be . . . but Sumiko sure was. She didn't remember this Sachiko person very well, but if she was a traitor she probably wouldn't be much use . . .

Then again if Kabuto wasn't sure of her loyalty but wanted to utilize her again . . . maybe Sumiko could . . .

Sumiko was only a child, she couldn't really do much . . . but with the help of an adult like Sachiko-whoever she was-she might actually manage to do something to help her parents take the Emperor down . . .

* * *

Chouji knew he was crazy.

Getting into the city had been close to impossible, getting out with hunters and samurai patrolling for them was going to be even closer.

Worst of all Ino was in danger because of him. Why had she followed him into the city? Why had he left her the need to do so?

He just couldn't abandon his last student, not knowing what was going to happen.

He'd face consequences as well when he got back, but if he could get Daisuke and now Ino as well out alive it'd be worth anything Naruto-sama might do to him.

"Daisuke!" Chouji shouted, "Do you know anything that would help us get out of here?"

"No, but we're nearby one of my res-"

Ino suddenly hissed, "They're on us!"

A pair of black shapes rose from the shadows as if on cue. Perhaps Ino's noticing them had forced them to abandon stealth, which only made Chouji glad his wife was there despite the danger.

He hadn't seen them at all.

Daisuke barreled into one, and the other threw what looked like a ball into the air.

"Down!" Ino cried.

"Cover!" Daisuke shouted at the same time, pulling the shinobi he wrestled with around so that the man was between him and the ball.

Chouji had a split second to react and there was no cover to be found except on the ground so that's where he headed at first, keeping his eyes on the free shadow which had actually managed to rise above the ball it'd thrown.

Why, or rather _how _was that possible, what was that thing?

He was barely below the roofline when the ball exploded with a flash and as Chouji raised his hand to his eyes to cover them he felt the stabbing pain in his arm and understood why Daisuke had shouted that they should find cover.

The flash bomb had also contained senbon, probably hundreds of them fired like rain.

Though Chouji must have been in a good position to avoid the majority of it because only his arm hurt.

He lowered his arm and saw that it was indeed full of senbon but the rest of him was not.

"Don't fight, just run, they all know where we are now!" Ino shouted.

Chouji tore several needles from his arm and started to feel woozy.

He hit the ground much harder than he'd meant to, but managed to stay on his feet.

Where was everyone else?

He got a partial answer when one of the shinobi that had attacked them hit the ground in a heap covered in needles.

Ino grabbed his arm and began to work some sort of Jutsu on it, mumbling something about poison.

Chouji gradually realized she wasn't mumbling, he just couldn't hear her very well. She was walking quickly as she worked on his arm though it must not be easy for her because it certainly wasn't easy for Chouji to move his legs let alone keep pace with his wife.

But where was Daisuke? The veteran Jounin had no time to worry about the poison those senbon must have had in them, both Daisuke and the second enemy ninja were missing from view which meant they were probably fighting each other.

Chouji needed to help.

But Ino kept him moving and as her medical Jutsu did its work he managed to hear more and more and his body responded much better allowing him to move his legs faster.

"That should be enough." Ino commented, increasing her pace, "We need to get out!"

"Where's Daisuke?"

"If he hasn't caught up to us at the pace we were going he's probably not going to now." Ino said.

"We have to go back for him!" Chouji said, "He's the whole reason I came here!"

"And _you're _the whole reason _I _did!" Ino snapped, "Everyone knows we're here now, everyone's coming to get us, we need to be somewhere else _now_!"

Chouji shook his head and turned but Ino held his arm, "We have to go now!" She warned.

Chouji was torn. He wanted to get Ino to safety and he knew she was right.

With how slowly they'd been moving if Daisuke hadn't rejoined them he probably wouldn't at all . . . but the other shinobi hadn't caught up to them either, didn't that mean there was a chance Daisuke was still fighting holding the enemy off to cover their escape?

"Shikamaru's teams will get him if he's still alive," Ino assured Chouji, "They should already have arrived, we're only making things harder for them."

Chouji pulled his arm away from her then and said, "No! I'm about to make it much easier for them! Go Ino, I'll make sure nobody follows you."

"Chouji you-" Ino began but Chouji silenced her with what might well be their last kiss.

So naturally he made it a good one.

And then he turned and ran towards the sounds of battle he could now clearly hear.

He leapt onto the rooftops and saw that several shapes were moving in the darkness very rapidly, too fast for Daisuke unless his skills had improved by leaps and bounds since Chouji last trained him.

That meant Daisuke needed help, and so would Shikamaru's teams if they were going to get to Daisuke's people before it was too late.

Chouji would buy them as much time as he could, hopefully as much time as they needed.

With a blood curdling roar that even made a few of the enemy shapes falter for a moment in surprise, Akimichi Chouji of the Konoha Twelve threw himself into the fray against the Emperor's minions.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	81. Love and Hate

**Chapter Seventy-Nine**

"It's amazing what a man will do to protect what he cares about." Kabuto observed idly.

"Is that so?" Orochimaru asked as the two of them looked out at the city now alive with combating ninja.

"Kotaro stayed here to protect his mother even after his father was safe." Kabuto offered, and Orochimaru nodded the point.

"Now, stupidly the rebels attempt a perilous strike into the heart of our city to rescue the resistance that we didn't even know for certain existed in any real fashion."

"Indeed." Orochimaru smiled.

In truth the Konoha rebels would never have made it into the city unless Orochimaru had willed it . . . which he had.

And they would only get back out again because he willed it.

They would take faulty intelligence back to Konoha's sole strategist who would struggle to make something workable from it.

"Based on when they hit that village their main force couldn't arrive any sooner than tomorrow afternoon," Kabuto continued, "Yet a few shinobi rushed ahead to kindly rid our city of the very spies and deep agents that might have caused problems when the real battle begins."

Orochimaru nodded slowly. "Fascinating." He said halfheartedly and Kabuto did not miss the lack of interest.

So he finally came right to the point.

"It's quite amazing really what a man will do to protect what he cares about." Kabuto said again and with great conviction. "I should hope it would not amaze you what lengths I will go to in order to protect this city, to protect this empire."

Orochimaru smiled sinisterly, "Are you suggesting sacrificing yourself for the greater good, Kabuto-kun? I don't think it has come to that."

Kabuto smiled back and said, "I am saying I would sacrifice _anyone_."

Orochimaru's smile persisted. Kabuto must have some sort of silly ace up his sleeve to actually make a threat.

A veiled threat, but a threat nonetheless.

Orochimaru shrugged it off. Even if Kabuto destroyed Anko's body Orochimaru himself would be unbothered.

And Kabuto would only make an enemy of Kotaro in the process.

Orochimaru placed a reassuring hand on Kabuto's shoulder, whether or not it lulled his second-in-command into a false sense of security mattered little to the Emperor.

He looked at his beautiful city . . . in truth it was Kabuto's city.

Orochimaru didn't care a whit for it.

It could all burn for all he cared . . . in fact he'd rather like that.

And if Kabuto crossed him at all it would.

* * *

It was amazing what a man would do to protect the things he cared about.

And Daisuke was amazing himself every step he took.

He'd told Ino-senpai to get her husband to safety, that he'd follow them.

He'd lied.

Daisuke had killed the second hunter the moment the two legendary Jounin were away and then he'd made his move, stealing the dead woman's cloak and mask he rushed towards the one thing he couldn't even imagine fleeing the city without.

Eri.

She was what mattered.

His heart went out to any members of his resistance that might get hurt because of the delay, he'd tell one of his clansmen who lived nearby the palace to rally the rest and get out of the city quietly. Shikamaru had sent teams to get them out, they'd find them . . . he hoped.

He wasn't a perfect man, he'd never pretended to be. It made him feel like trash to put the needs of one over the needs of the many, but he just couldn't do anything else right now. The many had teams of ninja coming to their rescue and the one was by herself in the closest thing to hell that Daisuke believed existed.

Whatever they were doing to her in that palace had to end _immediately. _Daisuke didn't care what stood between him and her, he'd tare it all down if he had to.

Brick by brick, he'd exhaust all of his chakra, he'd get Eri and rescue her even if it cost him his own life.

And he knew it would cost him his own life . . . that was the amazing thing. He was almost entirely certain that he wasn't going to survive, but he kept moving towards the palace.

He knew he wouldn't die until she was safe.

It was just that simple.

Or he was just that insane.

Whatever it was that moved him he kept moving, the Emperor knew who he was and had sent someone to kill him already so there was no point trying to talk his way in.

If he was lucky the enemy would assume their assassin had succeeded and that Daisuke was dead.

If he were confronted by a guard he'd pose as a hunter. Because they never showed their faces it would be easy and because his clan had been involved with the building of pretty much _everything _he knew the passages that ninja would likely take to get into the palace.

But he didn't plan on letting anyone see him once he was inside the palace, no guards no other ninja.

He knew his limitations, he knew he was just a Chuunin and what he was doing was insane.

But it still had to be done, there might never be another chance and now he had nothing to lose.

He just hoped Chouji-sensei had gotten out okay.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi had honestly never thought he'd be going _back _into the city without intention of leveling it, but that is exactly what he and a dozen other Jounin-including Neji and Hinata-had done.

The Hyuuga had been necessary to spot any traps in place and when they reported that there were several but not enough Kakashi had known immediately what they meant.

The whole ordeal was a trap.

A trap already sprung it seemed. _Someone _was fighting in that city and when they saw a flash of light near the markets-or what had been Konoha's markets-they knew they had to move.

Thirteen Jounin, most of them the villages proudest clan the Hyuuga, moved into the city to rescue lost comrades and to assist whoever it was that was fighting their enemies.

Could it be the Lightning forces? Had they come after all?

Had Waves arrived early?

Was it Suna?

Was the resistance fighting back against their execution?

The final had seemed the most likely, there _could_ have been at least a few shinobi in their number after all, and even if there weren't they might still try to fight back.

But when Kakashi saw who it was fighting in the markets he was confused.

Then he was irritated.

Chouji and Ino stood back to back surrounded by soldiers carrying torches and four hunter ninja on the rooftops above them.

"Surrender!" One of the Samurai shouted, and Kakashi could see from the dead or incapacitated forms of the dozen or so soldiers and trio of shinobi that the man might not have been ordered to offer surrender before attacking.

Kakashi nodded to Neji who whistled sharply.

As far as signals went it was a poor one for shinobi. Too loud, obviously.

But it wasn't for the ninja. The Hyuuga clan already knew exactly what it was doing, it was following Hinata's lead, not Neji's.

The enemy however raised their gaze to see Hyuuga Neji, standing nearby and until then undetected.

Several of the soldiers actually began to tremble.

But fear was only normal in war, Kakashi didn't pity them nor would he spare them if he didn't have to.

He threw himself at the Samurai in command and thrust a kunai into one of the man's exposed eye sockets with one hand and ripping the Katana from the screaming warrior's grasp in the same instant with the other.

In practically the same motion he slashed the throat of the Samurai with his own katana and then lunged into the line of soldiers dealing out death left and right.

The Katana would suffice for now, he'd save his chakra for real trouble.

One of the four hunter ninja was thrown into the terrified throng of soldiers courtesy of Neji, and another tried to retreat but suddenly staggered mid leap and hit the rooftop he'd aimed for hard.

Ino must have used one of her psychic punches to trip him up, and he rolled from the roof and hit the ground hard just in time to be trampled by screaming fleeing soldiers.

"I don't know what you two are doing here," Kakashi said calmly, "but if you're not on a mission you might as well lend a hand with ours, I have a feeling it's going to be tricky."

Neji landed between them and said "Hinata-sama is leading the clan and tracking down our known people, but if you know of others it might expedite things."

"Why would we know anyone?" Ino demanded irritably, then her demeanor changed and she asked, "How do _you _know anyone?"

"We had planned to follow the Hunters and patrols. The ones not coming after you all that is." Kakashi said dryly, "We just need to find one and he should be able to lead us to more."

"Daisuke-kun," Ino said, "He could tell us where the rest are . . . if he's alive."

"Where is he?" Kakashi demanded.

"He must have gotten away from this just in time," Chouji said, "I don't know where he is now."

Kakashi turned to Neji and asked, "Do you?"

"It shouldn't take long." Neji began but then a nearby door swung open and all four Jounin spun towards it ready to fight.

It was the door of Ichiraku ramen and the man standing in the frame while bent with age could still be a threat if he raised alarm, still Kakashi made no move to silence him.

Someone he knew that the man was no threat.

"I can save you some trouble." Teuchi, the bent old owner of the ramen shop said, "I'm one, Ayame's another. Did you really think we'd just betray valued customers like the Konoha shinobi?"

Though the night was dark and the situation was more than a little grim Kakashi couldn't keep the faint traces of a smile from creeping over his masked mouth.

* * *

Shiroi stood on her balcony watching the fun through her special eyes.

She glanced back at her son, Saizo who was standing in the doorway watching her as well.

Kurai was sitting in quiet meditation so Saizo, despite his youth he knew to be careful not to disturb his father in those quiet times.

But he didn't seem to have any sort of survival instincts either, for while his father was one person who might punish him for being up late his mother was another and he had come straight to her.

"What do you think you're doing up?" Shiroi asked her son.

"Couldn't sleep." The boy said, rubbing his eyes. "Who're those people?" He asked, pointing into the city.

Shiroi knew he couldn't see what was happening like she could, he wasn't using his Byakugan-indeed he was too young-to watch as the burning hot blurs of movement danced through the city, distant bodies expending chakra to do the deeds of shinobi and traitors.

But his eyes would still be sharp and in the bright moonlight he could no doubt see the leaping forms of those shinobi who were battling, or the occasional flash of a Jutsu.

"They're bad people fighting the Emperor's loyal. They'll be punished soon."

"How come you're not helping?" Saizo asked.

"The Emperor doesn't need me for this so I get to watch now and help later." Shiroi smiled.

"Can I watch too?" Saizo asked.

"It's dangerous." Shiroi lied. "You should be in bed."

"I want to watch the traitors die." The little boy implored excitedly and just loudly enough that Shiroi saw Kurai flinch, his focus gone.

Shiroi smiled. "Well I can hardly grudge you that, can I?"

She beckoned for her son to come join her and noted that Kurai had raised his head from his meditation and he didn't look pleased.

Was it because he'd been stirred from his meditation? She'd tried to be quiet to avoid that very thing, and he didn't usually get upset when Saizo interrupted him.

She supposed that must be it, but he didn't look irritated at being disturbed . . . he looked bothered, even a little disappointed.

Shiroi tilted her head, silently calling him over too.

Why not? They could watch the battle-what they could see of it in the moonlight at least-as a family.

But he just bowed his head again, and she turned back to the fighting.

She saw someone try to use a fireball, they were illuminated for a brief moment and them they slammed into a rooftop riddled with arrows.

It was funny, so she laughed quietly to herself.

And Saizo laughed too. She knew he was just laughing because she was, he wouldn't have seen the details like she could, but it was still nice to hear his laughter.

There was a sound behind them and to her surprise Kurai did get up and come to join them. She supposed there was just too much happiness going on for even him to stay sour.

She smiled but he didn't even match gazes with her. She held out her hand for him to hold but he brushed past her.

Instead he put his hand on his son's shoulder and said, "I want you to remember, Saizo . . . good people are going to die tonight on both sides. It's not something to celebrate."

Saizo seemed confused but it was Shiroi's turn to be irritated. "Don't go spouting things the boy's too young to understand, let him enjoy his patriotism, at least he's not lacking in it."

Kurai ignored her and said, "People are going to have their lives taken away tonight, my son. Boys and girls your age are losing their mommies and daddies tonight, that's war. It's not fun, it's not to be enjoyed and it's wrong to watch and laugh."

"They're traitors." Saizo said.

"To us they are." Kurai nodded. "To them _we _are. Your mother and I had to be or you might not have been born . . . people have their reasons and they fight for what they believe in. When they die it's not a laughing matter."

_So that's it you judgmental ass! _Shiroi thought in a rage, _You just can't stand for us to be happy, _that's _what pisses you off? Not that people are defiling our perfect Imperial city, no it's that your wife has a laugh when one of them gets what he deserves, _that's _what makes you mad!_

"Mommy laughs too" Saizo pointed out.

"Yes. Yes she does." Kurai said calmly, patting his son's shoulder one last time. "But your mother isn't laughing because she thinks it's funny. You should get some sleep, it's not right to watch this."

_Don't you dare . . . _Shiroi's lip grew stiff and her eyes started to blaze. _Don't try to create a rift between me and _my _child you bastard!_

Saizo frowned but Kurai enforced nothing. Instead he turned around and walked away.

"That's right, we don't want you here bugging us if all you're going to do is be a grumpy jerk, go mope alone in your corner. Saizo can stay up as late as he wants and watch the Emperor's enemies _die_, and we'll laugh and laugh because it _is _funny, it's _hilarious _when traitors get what they deserve. You just mind your own business and keep meditating!" Shiroi said triumphantly, but keeping her language toned down for her son's sake.

She _wanted _to say a whole mess of profanities to Kurai at that moment, but she didn't and she was rather proud of herself.

But Kurai just said, "I'm not meditating, Shi-chan. I'm praying. I know it seems odd, I've only just remembered how to do it when the fighting started and it seemed like it couldn't hurt."

"Yeah well don't bother, the Emperor's men don't need your silly little prayers and if you're praying for the _enemy_-"

"I'm praying for you, my love." Kurai said with a touch of mournfulness in his voice, "Like I said, it seemed like it couldn't hurt."

Shiroi rolled here eyes with contempt and turned back to the fight.

But she was alone.

Saizo looked at his father, then his mother, then quietly went back to his room.

And Shiroi stopped watching the fight.

It didn't matter anymore because it wasn't fun anymore. Kurai had ruined that.

And he'd made their son, _her _son think less of her.

_Pray for yourself, Kurai, you need it far more than me, because one of these days I will _kill _you._

And she laughed again, this time bitterly.

Because she knew she'd do it. Even though she somehow still loved Kurai and wanted him to love her in return she knew she loved her son and the Emperor more, and she'd do anything in order to keep their love.

That included killing innocents, killing children, killing Kurai.

_But not tonight._

Tonight She would pretend to watch the battle as she watched him through her near perfect peripheral vision and she'd remember what he'd done, remember her pain and anger she felt now so that when the moment came she wouldn't hesitate.

_But again, _she told herself, _that moment's not tonight._

Still perhaps because she was so focused on Kurai instead of the battle, or perhaps because she was so busy thinking of her own anger and unhappiness Shiroi quite missed the familiar chakra frame dressed in Hunter's attire that slipped over the walls and into the palace.

The form she would otherwise had seen and immediately raised alarm over.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	82. Ambitions Light and Dark

**Chapter Eighty**

Oedo Tomoko felt a chill run down her spine as she watched the man she loved rise from his brief prayer.

She'd never seen him pray before. He'd never seemed the type.

Then again, if there was some greater power-and she used to think there was-it wouldn't hurt to have it on their side tonight.

Tonight they'd be all but committing suicide.

Yuu turned and looked at her, his expression softening the moment his emerald green eyes fell on her.

"Are you all right, Tomoko-chan?" He asked.

Tomoko nodded, "I'm . . . yes." She decided.

He smiled and said, "You know, Tomoko . . . I don't remember my parents. Not my biological ones. Kaori and Takumi raised me." Yuu looked down and whispered, "I . . . I guess for me there's just no question about what has to be done. But if you're unsure-"

"No." She said firmly, "I'm with you. This is important to you and that makes it important to me. Besides, I knew Takumi-san and Kimiko-san well enough to know that their blood cannot go unanswered."

Yuu looked away and whispered, "Tomoko, you've already . . ."

"Taken a beating?" The young woman smirked, "Hardly. I'm an Oedo, we're practically made of metal. I may take a dent or two, but I'm still up to the fight. Heck if you keep dragging your feet I might go off and avenge our friends without you," She joked.

Yuu still didn't face her as he said, "If anything happens to me-"

"Don't worry, I'll avenge you too." She said, and now it was her turn to look away.

"That's not what I-"

"Yeah, yeah." Tomoko grumbled.

Yuu sighed, "I guess it's time we got ready . . ."

Tomoko nodded slowly then said, "Yuu . . . if anything happens to me . . . I uh . . ." She frowned and whispered, "Listen to me, acting like this is going to be dangerous or something."

Yuu laughed, "Yeah . . . how irrational of us to think that assassinating a Kage would be even remotely dangerous for a pair like us."

"And we have help to boot." Tomoko scoffed, "Thank the powers for traitors, eh?"

Yuu was quiet for a moment, then he said, "You're not still thinking about Chiwa, are you?"

"No." Tomoko assured him. "She'll get hers when she gets hers, right now it's the Tsuchikage that we need to worry about. I just hope she didn't alert him somehow."

"I wouldn't care even if she did." Yuu said, "I'd go anyway. But . . . you don't have to."

"I already told you-" She said, turning to face him again and almost losing herself in those beautiful green eyes of his.

"I know." He said, and he smiled at her. "I'm glad you'll be there. I love you, Tomoko."

Tomoko felt as if the words were crushing her.

She loved to hear them and she was terrified of them at the same time.

She turned her gaze away and forced a cocky smile. "Yeah, I figured." She said with bravado she didn't really feel.

Her smile became more natural though as she said one of the few things she did know for certain without having to wonder whether she was speaking as herself or as a spy.

"I love you too." She said. "We should probably get married. You know, if we don't die."

"Bit soon, don't you think?" Yuu asked.

"Even if we don't die tonight our prospects don't look good for the year." Tomoko admitted.

Yuu smiled slightly, "I guess you have a point."

Tomoko looked at Yuu and she frowned.

She whispered, "Yuu, I never stopped being a Konoha shinobi."

She said it almost without really thinking.

She just said it.

She couldn't help it, she couldn't go on not telling him.

She couldn't run the risk of dying or having him die not knowing.

She loved him and he deserved to know the truth.

He didn't seem to have a response and she thought to say something quick to explain, to justify.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out. After a while she finally managed to say, "Sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

Yuu watched her for a moment, then asked, "Is that really it?"

"What?" Tomoko blinked.

"I guess I just don't understand." He admitted.

Tomoko frowned, "I mean that my first loyalty has always been to the Hokage, not the Raikage."

Yuu nodded slowly, "Uh-huh . . . _and_?"

"What do you mean 'and?" Tomoko demanded.

Yuu smiled, "Kimiko-sensei told me on day one. We didn't care."

Tomoko stared for a moment, then decided the best word to sum up her confusion was; "What?"

"Are you surprised? She was a genius after all." Yuu smiled. "She knew you'd been left on by Konoha and I guessed why. I wouldn't trust Lord Taiko either and he certainly hasn't done anything to prove me wrong on that count. We knew what you were and why you were here."

"And you fell in love with me anyway?" Tomoko blinked.

"Well to be fair I was pretty smitten with you from the start" Yuu said. He looked at her for a moment and whispered, "I always trusted you and so did Kimiko-sensei. We knew you were a good person and we had that belief reaffirmed during every mission and every day we spent with you. How could I do anything but fall in love with you?"

Tomoko's eyes narrowed. She said, "Well you could have told me. That might have helped."

"I wasn't out to help you build a resistance cell, I just didn't blame the Hokage for wanting to keep tabs on Lord Taiko. Besides, I was grateful for the time to spend with you."

"But I've _suffered _with this all this time." Tomoko frowned.

"See? More proof you're a good person." Yuu smiled disarmingly.

He took her hand and whispered, "Look I . . . just didn't think it was necessary. Besides I kind of hoped you knew where I stood."

Tomoko frowned, "Where do you stand?"

"With you." He said simply. "If ever you had to choose one loyalty over the other . . . well my loyalty was with you." Yuu said. "Besides I-"

Tomoko had heard enough, she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him quite a bit harder than she meant to.

She nearly sent them both to the floor but Yuu managed to stay on his feet. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, as their lips parted Tomoko whispered, "Dying now would _suck_."

"So we won't die." Yuu said.

"Don't say that." Tomoko pleaded, "In the books whenever the good guy says 'I won't die' he dies!"

Yuu raised an eyebrow and said, "This isn't a book, Tomoko-chan."

"What if it were?" She asked. "Do you really want to take the risk?"

Yuu smiled. He kissed her gently and said, "We won't die."

* * *

Despite the admirable efforts of her coat's upturned collar the cold night was biting into Karin's otherwise exposed face, no doubt turning her cheeks red as she tried to be snide with an already irritable Suigetsu.

"You're certain?" He asked her.

"It's been roughly a week, of course I'm not certain." She said almost as coldly as she felt, adjusting her glasses then folding her arms over her chest. "But it's not the sort of experiment I can replicate. All the conditions were correct, the Medics even aided in the process, I wanted no mistakes. It should have worked, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

Suigetsu smiled a very thin smile and for a moment Karin's conviction wavered.

He said, "You understand we can't afford for you to be uncertain. This is a weapon we cannot pass up, or allow anyone else to possess. We thwart Orochimaru's plans for it, and Konoha's if we can, but if we ourselves fail to make this work-"

"I understand that," Karin said, "and believe me I'd love to conduct the experiment a few more times to be sure, but it simply doesn't seem likely to occur."

Suigetsu paced for a moment then glanced at Juugo, "Well? What do you think?" He asked his friend.

Juugo shrugged and said, "It worked."

Suigetsu was taken aback, "What? How do you know that?" He asked.

"Juugo might have senses we don't possess," Karin suggested, "Maybe he just _knows_?"

"I just have faith that everything is going to work out." Juugo said, and Karin must have been too slow to mask her reaction because he quickly added, "I'm not crazy, Karin. I just know you did your best and it should have worked . . . so I think it must have worked."

"Of course. Crazy would be suggesting that you have psychic powers. Off night tonight, Karin-chan?" Suigetsu sneered.

"I did _not _suggest psychic powers!" She scoffed, "If you can stop thinking with your ego, Mizukage-sama, I am trying to tell you-"

Suigetsu raised his hands in the air for attention not in a gesture of surrender and said, "Karin-san your method is not in question here, I'm sure your research will yield fruit and all that jazz but what I'm not getting is why only _you _can do this research. Konoha let Orochimaru hold all the cards once and look where that got them."

Karin scowled, "You know full well that only I am _capable _of this."

Suigetsu frowned and looked at Juugo. "Orochimaru made a weapon of your ability, my friend. Given the time he probably would have done the same to me . . . do you remember either of our homelands seeing any sort of benefit from that?"

"This isn't just about me, and I am not going to betray Mist!" Karin hissed, then she quickly saw and grasped an opportunity to seize control of the conversation.

"It isn't Mist you're worried about, it's _you_. You're afraid I'll betray _you _Suigetsu, and it's a valid fear considering our relationship. However as long as _you're _the Mizukage I know I have a sufficiently powerful meat shield to soak up all the assassination attempts that would be hurled at _me _if I seized power from you."

Suigetsu scowled and Karin kept on, chuckling sinisterly to herself as she adjusted her glasses. "Face it Suigetsu, it's never been loyalty that keeps me on your side. It's convenience. It's not convenient for me to betray you, especially since you actually _want _me to finish my project whereas Sasuke-kun would be outraged."

"Then maybe I'll let him in on it." Suigetsu scowled.

"Then neither of us benefits." Karin shrugged.

"You don't quite understand the nature of hate, do you?" Suigetsu asked and his tone was surprisingly serious.

Karin shrugged it off and said, "If we'd had more time I'd have utilized it. Such as it is it was very hard to get this thing off the ground in the first place. I mean if it were easy I'm sure others would have done it by now. I'm not delaying results to spite you, I want this to work as much as you do."

"Fair enough." Suigetsu growled. "Go talk to Sasuke then, get him to agree to whatever it is the next stage of your evil plan is because you may not get another chance. I'll organize teams to secure as much of Orochimaru's research as we can. Luckily we'll be getting there before the leaf bugs, it should give us plenty of time."

"Assuming Konoha didn't get ahead of us." Karin said, and Suigetsu scoffed.

But she knew he'd been considering that. Their rear guard had seen no signs of Konoha scouts, and when Sasuke had suggested that Konoha may have gotten ahead of them Suigetsu had barely managed to contain his irritation at the very idea.

If the shinobi of Konoha reached Otogakure first they might do something crazy like succeed in ending the war too soon.

**To Be Continued . . .**

**Note:** No I didn't forget that Yuu had previously assumed Tomoko's life with Konoha was over. This chapter isn't meant to contradict that. Rather, Yuu was aware of her loyalty, but assumed it was a moot point because Cloud wasn't going to go to war with Leaf. He assumed, therefore, that Tomoko would stick with him regardless. He is still under that assumption.


	83. Obstinatus

**Chapter Eighty-One**

The fighting outside intensifying but by and large the temple was being left alone.

Several loyal people were inside praying to their emperor for protection. Miyuki didn't need to be certain of who was good or evil to know that these people were helpless and in need of comfort so for a time she was able to set her own doubts aside and tend to them all as a lady of the Imperial shrine should.

But there were screams in the street that drowned out the dying cries of the fallen. The entire city had come alive tonight and Miyuki knew why.

The High Priests had said that the people in the streets were either trying to get into the temple or trying to help the Emperor's divine angels battle the demons that had invaded their homeland.

It was a bit . . . overdramatic for Miyuki and she wouldn't have believed it even if she hadn't been made aware of the penchant for lying that seemed to flow through this religion so strongly it made a shinobi seem like a genuinely honest person.

Which might not be saying all that much since of course a good Shinobi would still make herself _seem _like a genuinely honest person as well.

And Miyuki did so, working with the people of the church helping individuals through the chapel doors as they flooded to the perceived safety.

And she listened to the roar from outside, it was clear at least to her that the majority of it was from people trying to either make it into the temple-which meant things must be very bad because most people knew to stay in their homes during a crisis-but a fair amount of it seemed military in nature.

Soldiers most likely, fighting whom she couldn't be sure.

No army should have been close enough yet, it was only by bringing nothing apart from the swifter moving shinobi that Naruto-sensei's forces could have possibly arrived already.

That meant the people were rising up.

Miyuki didn't know what to expect . . . either tomorrow the streets would be thick with the dead of the Emperor's enemies or they would have a flood of new test subjects. Either way a lot of people were going to pay for their actions tonight.

* * *

Kotaro stared with his own eyes at Naomasa's daughter.

If that was really the case.

Looking at this girl he had no trouble believing he'd been lied to, but the resemblance to Hitomi was enough that he could believe that _she _at least really was the child's parent.

Kasumi was pacing back and forth, whispering to him as if she thought they'd be overheard, "I don't remember having a child at all . . . she doesn't even look like me."

"You didn't have a child," Kotaro assured her. "You'll feel better over time, your head will clear."

"So I'm not insane . . ." Kasumi shook her head, "No, no, no. This child shouldn't be here, it's too dangerous. We were planning something, right? I know we were . . ."

"We planned to help my father escape and we did it." Kotaro assured her.

Kasumi blinked her eyes rapidly, then suddenly shouted, "Yes! I remember!"

She put her hands on her chest as she said it, then seemed startled by her outburst.

"Sorry . . ." She frowned, tilting her head. "If they're not trying to pass it off as ours who owns that baby?"

"Nobody owns her," Kotaro couldn't help but laugh, "we're looking after her for a while though. I need you to protect her, okay? Don't let Kabuto have her."

"No." Kasumi nodded in apparent agreement, "Kabuto's the enemy. He's the reason I'm here . . . he _is _the reason I'm here . . ." She frowned, and looked away, "I mean . . ."

Kotaro set the baby down gently on the bed and said, "Be careful not to lie on her."

Kasumi nodded, then glanced at him, "What're you doing? Where're you going? Should I go with you?"

"I'd rather you didn't." Kotaro admitted. Kasumi seemed to be having a bad reaction to the lack of the drugs in her system.

Frankly Kotaro wouldn't have left the child with her if he had any other choice.

But he didn't.

He was himself again, and there was fighting going on in the city.

He had to be a part of it.

He took a steadying breath and said, "Kasumi, protect that child and protect yourself. I'm your only ally so don't trust anyone but me and don't trust me unless you _know_ it's me. If you have to, take the infant and shadow your way out of here."

"Why don't I do that now?" Kasumi asked.

"They'd kill you and the rest of us." Kotaro answered.

"So why would I do it later?" Kasumi asked, and Kotaro was a little relieved to see just a hint of clarity starting to enter into her ebony eyes.

"Because I'm about to do something that'll make them want to kill you and the rest of us." Kotaro answered.

Kasumi was sane enough to look bothered by that. "They're reading our brains, aren't they?"

"Not mine, not at this moment." Kotaro said, "and I intend to see them lose the ability in the next."

Kasumi nodded slowly, then said, "Masaru . . ."

She didn't seem to have any particular reason for saying the name. Maybe she was just reminding herself of what it was.

It did seem to bring just a bit more clarity to her.

* * *

Ichiteru watched with dull eyes as guards filed past the cell she and Eri shared.

There was something going on outside, but she couldn't even imagine what.

Could it be a battle? She wished she were in the same cell as Emiko so she could ask her. Emiko would just guess and be right.

Ichiteru didn't have that gift, and even if she could put the guards to sleep it wouldn't help her get out of the cell.

Even if Eri were awake instead of curled in a ball asleep on her cot her ability to climb wouldn't help them escape either. Really for all their talents the Ishida family were helpless now.

Except for Naomasa. Ichiteru hoped he'd be all right out there. She wondered if maybe Konoha's forces were attacking, if her brother and her husband were out there even now waging war on these monsters?

Maybe that was why there seemed to be so much commotion.

She saw the prisoners being led out. There were dozens, no scores all chained together dressed in rags or in tattered uniforms.

A masked shinobi came to her cell and began to open the lock but one of the guards stopped him.

"Only the subjects marked." The guard said.

"Lord Kabuto wants the Ishida family brought to him immediately." The shinobi reported.

"We have orders to leave them alone for the rest of the night."

"Those aren't _my _orders." The shinobi said. "Do I need to-"

"What's going on?" A tall man demanded, breaking into the conversation. Ichiteru recognized him as one of the men in the room when she'd been transported to the capital.

He glowered at the shinobi and demanded, "Why aren't you in the city? You're supposed to be part of the diversion."

Diversion? Ichiteru felt a chill go through her.

"Minoru, sir . . . uh this Hunter claims that Lord Kabuto wants the Ishida family for-"

"Experimentations, of course. I suppose he would want to send a shinobi. Very well, round them up and bring them to Lord Kabuto right away."

"Uh . . . yes sir." The hunter shinobi said and returned to the lock.

"I said round them up!" Minoru shouted, "I'll take these two, you go get the rest of them. Conscript some guards too, they're tricky and we can't afford for any of them to get away."

The hunter seemed to hesitate, then he nodded and left.

Minoru opened the cell and asked, "Enjoying your stay, my lady?"

"Well I've hardly had time to grow accustomed to my accommodations and I'd like to know where my son-"

"Yes, yes, of course. Come on out then, and mind the monsters . . . they're all quite feral." Minoru ordered. "Bring the scrawny one, any funny business and your boy gets eviscerated or some other needlessly gruesome thing."

He didn't sound sincere, but why test him? Ichiteru struggled to her feet and roused Eri who scowled at the tall shinobi.

"Now what does your freak of a king want?"

"Not much. He's just found a fantastic way for you to help us end the war."

Ichiteru shuddered again.

She and Eri followed Minoru out of their cell and she looked down the hallway to see that a great many prisoners were being filed through the halls of the underground prison.

"What's this?" Ichiteru asked.

"One of those 'tell you and I have to kill you' things I'm sure." Minoru yawned.

"Then tell me." Eri mumbled.

"Maybe I'm just a sadistic bastard and I enjoy doing little things to make others miserable. Maybe I'd rather be out on those streets killing Konoha shinobi and rebels instead of down here acting as Kabuto's errand boy, especially when he already had an underling handling the job."

Eri scoffed, "Like you're not an underling yourself. You don't matter. I'm a prisoner and I mean more to him than you do."

"Yes well he likes you for the same reason anyone likes a young woman. He enjoys spending time with you flat on your back while he plays with your insides. It's the way he plays with you that differs, but nothing about it makes you special. "

"And yet I'm _still _more important than you." Eri forced a laugh. Ichiteru had never heard her sister sound so bitter, but under the circumstances it wasn't as if she couldn't understand.

Eri had been through a lot and at this point being petulant was all she had to resist the enemy.

Ichiteru reached back and took her younger sister's hand and smiled reassuringly. "We'll be okay, Eri-chan."

Eri smiled a slightly crooked almost spiteful smile and said, "Not really. But at least we'll be alive. It's more than I can say for Kabuto and his little crony here."

"Yes, of course . . . your Konoha rebels will come and rescue you any minute." Minoru chuckled as they left the labyrinth.

"That or die." Eri said darkly.

* * *

Daisuke let some of the scientists take him to each Ishida cell and free the family.

_Fine_, he thought, _I'll get them all out of here somehow._

Though getting around in the mask was more difficult than he'd expected it had helped him hide his surprise when an enemy Jounin had shown up to order him around. At the very least it seemed this guy had bought his story and forced it on the scientists and guards too.

Unfortunately he might have just signed Eri and her family up for some sort of experiment.

_ No, not on my life. _Daisuke thought bitterly as he led the Ishida family to catch up to the Jounin leading Eri.

He couldn't help but see the long line of mutations and monstrosities. He wouldn't let that be Eri or anyone else in her family.

He'd die first.

He took a deep, steadying breath, making peace with the fact that he very well might die against a Jounin.

But he had to try. He had to get them out.

Daisuke wouldn't let the Ishida family be turned into a bunch of cursed, tortured souls.

He shook his head slowly as he walked and eyed the Jounin's back.

That man was an obstacle that stood between Eri and freedom. Regardless of the danger to himself Daisuke intended to see that obstacle removed, or at least delayed.

And then all of a sudden Eri made a move and utter chaos broke out.

* * *

Eri had walked behind Minoru for as far as she was willing. She'd taken all she was willing to take.

She wanted to be strong. She wanted to endure for her family.

But she didn't want anyone cutting, poking or removing anything from her body again.

Maybe it was selfish, but for just one moment she wanted nothing more than to die and be done with it.

And in that one moment she struck.

Her hands had been left free, Minoru probably thought there was no reason to tie them, after all why would she try to escape when there was nowhere to go?

Little did he consider that escape was not always a prisoner's intention.

Eri lunged forward without proper thought and tackled the man. He pitched forward but she didn't have the strength to topple him.

Until her older sister threw her weight to the task as well.

_No, not you too! _Eri thought but it was too late.

A guard came rushing over, drawing his sword and turning his back on one of the prisoners he led.

Eri saw one prisoner's head perk up like a cat who'd just heard something interesting, but she didn't have time to think anything of it. Instead she grabbed for the shot sword as the guard tried to slam its pommel into her face.

He wanted to keep her alive? Well either she'd kill him instead or she'd change his mind.

She grabbed the hilt but his strength was too great for her and he hit her in the face anyway, but instead of letting go she held on tighter and pulled him down, his blade sliced into Minoru's side.

The Jounin roared in pain and lashed out, knocking the man away and hitting Ichiteru on the side of the head as well.

But the sword fell free and Eri dove on it, taking it up and no doubt holding it in the wrong grip.

She turned back and saw the hunter shinobi that had been sent to collect her initially was rushing over now no doubt to help Minoru. She raised the sword at him, slowing him down as he raised his hands in surrender.

"No, Eri . . ." A familiar voice said.

A beautifully familiar voice . . .

Her eyes narrowed, what kind of trick was this? Her hands shook with fury as she asked herself what else Kabuto hoped to grain from tormenting her like this.

That it might _truly _be Daisuke didn't even occur to her. There was no reason for him to be in this prison, let alone for him to be wearing an enemy uniform.

He'd never join them.

Whoever he was he shouted, "Look out!" and Eri had less than a second to wonder if he meant her before Minoru's fist slammed into the side of her head.

She spun, the sword clattering to the floor and hit her head hard on the floor. Her vision got blurry but then she heard screaming as well.

She lay on the ground and saw a red blur start to spread from her head as blurred feet rushed towards the boots of the guards. The scientists were shouting gibberish but they were barely audible over the roars and screams and to Eri all of it was strangely quiet anyway.

All Ishida Eri could do as the world faded to black was think, _I won._

**To Be Continued . . .**


	84. The Horde

_You still with me?_

**Chapter Eighty-Two**

Minoru scowled as the scrawny Ishida girl fell to the ground in a heap.

He didn't have time to admire his handiwork or even ensure she was still breathing-he was sure he hadn't hit her _that _hard, but who could be sure in the heat of the moment?

He felt a blade bite into his side and twisted, sweeping his arm out and throwing the imbecilic hunter into the wall.

There was a brief moment of calm, or so it seemed to Minoru.

Then . . . well, if the shinobi had believed in hell he would have thought he'd descended into it.

Mongrel transformations erupted down the slave line, roars and wails from prisoners, screamed orders from the scientists and a collective gulp from the guards.

Whatever magic held the prisoners in order was, in the blink of an eye, completely gone.

It was a blood bath, Minoru had to transform right away as a massive creature with the head of a bull and a turtle's shell slammed its horned head into his chest, knocking him backwards over the prone form of the Ishida girl.

His sprouting tail saved him from bashing his head against the stone wall, and as his senses heightened he allowed himself a brief smile, ignoring the fact that one of the horns had gored him.

All that mattered in that instant was slaughter, and he was eager to mete it out. He lost himself in the moment, rushing forward heedless of friend or foe he fought like a demon against an army of monsters.

The entire world around him ceased to exist; there was only the foe and the kill. He noticed nothing else, nothing at all, not even the Ishida family.

He let his scorpion tail club into the beast's face, obscuring its vision as the rest of him barreled into the creature, knocking it onto a mostly human looking creature with green scales and golden eyes.

Whatever the humanoid beast had been it became a smear across the tortoise-bull's heavy shell as the larger creature fell with Minoru on top of it, slamming claws into its chest and ripping its body armor away with howls of neigh orgasmic delight as he reached the flesh beneath.

The creature roared in a mixture of pain and rage and swept a heavy arm across Minoru's face.

Minoru's face was jerked to the side by the blow, but his own strength and grip on the bony flesh beneath the tortoise shell kept him in place.

Even so had he not been transformed his neck might have snapped from the strength of the soon to be dead enemy's fist. Nevertheless it was with glee that he turned back to look at his enemy whose eyes showed no fear, only rage.

Minoru Hikaru raised one clawed arm and brought it down hard, ripping into the doomed foe's ribcage, hoping all too optimistically to tear one out and beat his foe the rest of the way to death with it.

He might have succeeded, but when he felt that his enemy was already dead he suddenly lost all interest. The very idea that that warm slab of meat could hold his attention seemed insane and he jumped away from the corpse without a care as to where he ended up.

It didn't matter after all, he was the most dangerous thing in this hallway and he knew it.

And if he was wrong? Well then he'd be dead and that wouldn't matter either.

All that mattered was the fight . . .

The fight . . .

And . . .

Mission . . .

Mission?

No, he wasn't on a mission.

Was he?

No, he wasn't. He absolutely wasn't.

But . . . there was that matter of the family . . . the ones the master needed . . .

Was that his mission?

No.

But . . . he couldn't just leave them to wander free.

It was only with the greatest of efforts that he pulled himself away from pulverizing a still screaming pile of flesh that he was suspected had actually been a guard before he got his hands on it.

He snarled and turned his back on the melee, charging down the hall instead at full speed.

He'd find them eventually, and when he did he'd bring them to the master.

Hopefully the fighting would still be going on when he arrived.

* * *

Kotaro entered the chamber that contained the very last of the Yamanaka in the Emperor's employ.

The man was plugged into some machine or other, but his head did twitch in Kotaro's direction.

"Minoru Hikaru has been extracted from the melee, he is chasing the subjects." The Yamanaka reported almost mechanically.

It occurred to Kotaro that he didn't know this man at all, didn't know his name or whether or not he was a willing participant in the atrocities committed in this place or yet another victim.

Powers help him, he didn't care either.

The pair of shinobi guarding the controller tensed, one of them took a step forward and asked Kotaro, "What are you doing here, First?"

Kotaro gave the man a level stare and said, "Trust your instincts."

With an audible gulp the shinobi drew a pair of short blades and Kotaro couldn't help but smile beneath his mask.

"Good instincts." He said.

And then he attacked.

* * *

Daisuke didn't have time to think.

Eri lay motionless on the ground and pandemonium had broken out. The guards with them had turned to fight the raging prisoners and even Minoru had turned his back.

It was now or never.

he rushed to Eri, feeling quickly for a pulse.

One of her sisters dressed in typical Earth country attire swung the sword Eri had stolen at him but one he recognized as Emiko lunged forward and grasped her hand.

"Aneko, no!" Emiko snapped.

"This is about the worst possible time to guess wrong, little sister." The woman, Aneko snarled.

Daisuke lifted the mask from his head, knowing Aneko wouldn't recognize him but hoping that maybe Eri's parents might put in a good word to stop her swinging that sword again.

He said, "We need to get out of here now, before the fighting on the streets is over and before these poor people overrun those poorer guards."

"And they will!" Emiko said urgently, releasing a slightly more relaxed Aneko and helping their father lift Eri.

"Keep the kids in the center and follow me out," Daisuke ordered, "We need to move fast just trust me."

The small clan rushed down the halls, Daisuke didn't bother replacing his mask and luckily the only guards they encountered on the way out were heading towards the labyrinth entrance.

The roars and screams weren't getting any quieter which meant the mob was following them. The guards were probably barely slowing them down.

Daisuke glanced back and saw that the one called Aneko had surrendered her sword to another of her sisters and was instead carrying a small child, probably her son.

The mere fact that the child was there filled Daisuke with a stronger resolve.

These people needed to be free, even if it cost him his life.

The group of them ran, encountering a samurai or soldier here or there but they all seemed more interested in reaching the fighting down the hall than actually stopping a group of unarmed strangers and a hunter shinobi.

Daisuke made the mistake of thinking they might just make it.

And that was exactly the moment that fate decided to pull the rug out from under him.

As they reached the courtyard a pair of guards finally thought to question them.

One approached Daisuke, spear at the ready and demanded, "What's going on in there, shinobi?"

Another held his arm out to block their path and shouted, "Who are you and where are you all going in such a rush? Everyone _allowed _outside tonight is already-"

To his shame Daisuke panicked. The smart thing to do might have been trying to bluff his way past these men, but instead his hands shot like bullwhips to his equipment pouches and both men fell to the ground with shuriken protruding from their throats a split second later.

One of the women screamed and that got the attention of the other guards.

But when the beast that was Minoru Hikaru burst through the door they'd just came through Daisuke kind of wanted to scream too.

* * *

Kotaro's sword ate into the flesh of the controller's neck and in that moment he knew there was no turning back.

He wiped his sword on the headless body of one of the shinobi guards and calmly exited the room.

Kabuto wouldn't need much time to figure out who had struck his final controller and Kotaro didn't doubt that his life would be a short one if he stayed in the castle.

So he wouldn't.

He frowned to himself, thinking how easily he'd overcome the two guards. They'd been dressed as Jounin, but they'd moved like drunken Genin.

And then when he finally struck down the controller . . . he'd expected some sort of resistance, he'd thought he'd have to fight off a mental assault demanding he not strike.

But he didn't.

The killing blow had come as easily as breathing and Kotaro wondered was he just that accustomed to the act of killing, or had he been helped?

He wasn't sure which answer disturbed him more.

But now his fate was fixed, he was a rebel.

Perhaps he and the other members of the Five would die tonight, or perhaps they'd use the very techniques that had seen them survive this long to make it just a bit longer.

But with the final battle upon them Kotaro new that there was simply no way he would fight for the man who had held his mother hostage for almost half a decade, for the man who spent his days making monsters and controlling the people.

He would free those of the Five who wanted to be free and he would free his mother, in death if that was the only way.

* * *

Daisuke wasn't really a fighter, but it looked as if that wasn't going to matter in a moment.

"Run!" He ordered.

"What, over the wall?" Minako scoffed, gripping a stolen spear from one of the fallen guards, "We're not all Eri."

The eldest, Ichiteru grasped the sword she'd taken from Aneko and fell into a fighting stance she must have learned from her husband, and Mr. Ishida took up the spear from the second guard though his hands were shaking.

"Taiki, take your cousin." Ichiteru said in an authoritative but still almost resigned voice, "When you have a chance to run, do it."

"There's no chance!" Minako snapped.

"We're going to give them one." Ichiteru said.

"No, we won't." Emiko said calmly.

"Damn you, don't tell us things like that!" Minako shouted, "I hate it when you do that!"

"You're going to be fine, Minako." Emiko said with a slight smile, "It's going to be okay."

"She didn't mean to start lying either!" Aneko protested but the monster Hikaru interrupted her, speaking sluggishly at first as he began to regain his human shape.

"No . . . she's right . . . it's going to be okay. Surrender now and you'll go back to your cells, nice and cozy. I'll put in a personal word with the Emperor, tell him to only break _one _leg apiece. You won't be able to run away again, but you'll still be able to get around."

The guards had them encircled and Hikaru advanced.

Daisuke drew a kunai and said, "On three. One . . . two . . ."

The guards surrounding them fell to the ground grasping their necks, and in a flash a massive rock slammed into the ground between Daisuke and Hikaru and rolled straight into the face of the palace, taking Hikaru along with it. It left a crater in the side of the palace, widening the entrance considerably.

With no small amount of surprise the rock reduced in size and Daisuke saw that it had never been stone at all, but his Sensei.

Chouji slapped his shoulder and said, "Three. Now run."

"Wait," Ichiteru said, "If you're here-"

"We're not, we're running!" Chouji informed her.

"But if we can we have to rescue-"

"Running!" Chouji said as the monster horde emerged from the hole he'd made in the wall of the palace.

Ichiteru didn't move from her fighting stance until Chouji grabbed her and started to run for the wall.

Ino leapt from the wall and threw a few kunai into the mass of creatures to slow them but it did nothing and the group ran for the gates. She took up the rear of the group alongside Daisuke, and Chouji-sensei led them, but now that they were out in the open not all of the monstrous creatures was interested in them.

Many climbed up the walls like spiders and leapt into the city, still others fell on any nearby guards and even on one another.

Those guards who hadn't been with the group that surrounded Daisuke and the Ishida clan were now running themselves and the path to the gate was clear.

But from the nightmarish mass of experimentations Daisuke saw Hikaru rise again, still alive and transformed into a creature as hellish as the rest.

He had a tail that arced over his back like a scorpion's, and it shot forth, stabbing a deadly stinger through the chest of one experiment in his path as he came after them.

"Keep running!" Ino ordered, "Don't stop for anything!"

Daisuke didn't need to be told twice, but the image of so many monsters would haunt him for the rest of his life and he knew it.

A part of his brain recognized that they were all prisoners, all wronged, all victims.

The rest of him recognized that none of that mattered because they were a berserk horde out of control and out for blood. An order from the Hokage himself wouldn't have made Daisuke stop running.

Hikaru strode ahead of the rest, a fearsome guttural roar bursting from his jaws.

He closed the distance in the blink of an eye and his tail shot forward over his shoulder again, this time for Daisuke's chest.

Ino shoved him out of the way and shoved a kunai into the bulbous poison gland at the edge of the tail with one hand and with the other she threw a kunai that struck the center of the tail so that the entire thing swung backwards.

Unfortunately Ino hadn't let go of her kunai in time and as the tail hurtled backwards she was thrown into the air.

Or . . . had she jumped?

Daisuke ran to help her but Emiko grabbed his wrist and yanked him along none-to-gently.

"No." She warned him.

"But she'll be-"

"No, she's going to be fine." Emiko said, "Now come on!"

The group ran on, Chouji-sensei glanced over his shoulder and gritted his teeth but he didn't stop running.

None of them did.

Most of the way to the gate Daisuke expected Ino to catch up with them, after all Emiko had said she'd be fine.

But she didn't.

* * *

Orochimaru watched the chaos unfolding from the balcony.

"They seem somewhat wild, don't they?" Kabuto commented.

"Indeed. Perhaps ridding ourselves of the majority of the Yamanaka prisoners was a bit premature."

"By my calculations a single Controller should have been enough to keep them orderly until they reached the gates." Kabuto said evenly.

"They started rioting in the halls. Luckily we were able to corral them out. In any event it doesn't matter our little monster army is on the loose."

"Monster army?" Kabuto chuckled, "I prefer 'mongrel horde'."

"It has a ring to it." Orochimaru said with a laugh of his own. "Very well. Order Sumiko-chan brought here before you go about your business with your remaining experiments. It's time to incorporate your findings with my defense strategy."

Kabuto nodded and began to head for the door but Orochimaru called after him, "And Kabuto . . . you did tell me _everything _you learned, right?"

Kabuto bowed slightly, "Of course, Lord."

Orochimaru nodded and waved his dismissal.

He knew Kabuto was lying, but it would be interesting to see what the purpose could possibly be.

But for now the Konoha ninja were here . . . now he had to give them reason to come to him, and seeing their home consumed by an army of monsters . . . well that should do the trick.

From the window he watched as his legion, the seen and the unseen, descended on Kabuto's city.

Like demons pouring from the mouth of hell monstrous men and murderous creatures flooded forth into the streets, their desires for freedom and violence leading them in a chaotic sortie that the finest of generals couldn't have planned and by dawn the city would burn brighter than the sun.

With only those believers who had made it to the temple spared from the chaos. Thanks to the Controller who would direct away any creature that came too close, though his inability to control them on their way out was somewhat concerning Orochimaru was sure that once the man had the lives of a thousand innocents on the line he would make no mistakes.

And if he did . . . well those people didn't matter to Orochimaru. Only one man mattered . . . and if he did not strike now that the city was in chaos, then he never would.

He would have Sasuke . . . he would be made whole and glorious . . . and it would happen soon, or Otogakure would burn to the ground, nonbelievers and believers alike.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	85. Lord of Mists

_Do have a little faith . . ._

**Chapter Eighty-Three**

Just outside the ring of trees that surrounded the vast deforested wastes that encircled what was once Konohagakure Uzumaki Naruto stood. From there he watched his city burn in the distance and he felt his heart flood with doubt.

Otogakure was not on fire, his people were being very careful not to cause a great deal of damage on their mission and despite the odd blaze and flash for the most part they were succeeding so far.

But in the Hokage's mind he could still see Konoha in flames around him as their last ditch efforts to win the war had failed.

Not this time. Not again.

He couldn't let that happen again.

He wanted nothing more than to throw the full might of his shinobi force at the city, to take it back and purge the evils that had run rampant within.

But he couldn't. Not yet.

They would never win if they went now, he knew that. He'd made preparations, _years _of preparations and it could all fall apart if he let himself get carried away now.

Still it was difficult to watch.

They would wait for their allies. Sasuke and the Mist shinobi should be arriving sometime soon.

Until then Naruto would watch the city in the distance and see his city burning in his mind's eye.

He wondered if, once it was all over, he'd ever be able to stroll down the streets the way he used to.

"So close yet so far. Aggravating, isn't it?" Shikamaru asked, emerging from the tree line to stand to Naruto's left. "We're close enough to strike now, but too weak to win."

"We could win." Naruto corrected him.

"At too great a cost to hold it." Shikamaru amended.

"We are Konoha Shinobi, Shikamaru. We'll always do whatever we have to and we'll always succeed. Right?" Naruto asked.

But Shikamaru didn't answer, at least not at first.

Just as Naruto was resigning himself to the perceived fact that Shikamaru had no comment his advisor said, "Konoha doesn't exist anymore. Not really."

"Then we'll remake it." Naruto said.

"Will you? Well then I suppose I'll ask you why."

Naruto was surprised. He turned to face Shikamaru and asked, "Why?"

"That's my question." Shikamaru said, leaning against a tree.

"Because we have to . . ." Naruto said, not understanding why Shikamaru would even ask him such a thing.

"But why? Was Konohagakure a particularly magical place? Was the world any better for its presence?"

Naruto folded his arms, "If you had these doubts why-"

"I don't have doubts. I know why I'm here." Shikamaru said. "I'm asking you why _you're _here. Is it just because you're the Hokage? Is it just because our enemy exists and we need to stop him? Why are you here?"

Naruto smiled and looked back at Konoha.

He thought for a moment, and then he said, "I'm here to give my people and their families a safe place to sleep at night. A place without fear or secret police, or a neighbor with too much power demanding their island back. A place where everyone has a chance to become a shinobi, or a soldier, or a farmer or whatever they want to be. Life is so short and wars make it even shorter . . . so why shouldn't life be great for everyone?"

Naruto folded his arms and said, "There's no perfect world, and really Konoha is just a small corner of the world . . . but I want to make it a good one. An example to her neighbors. I know we can't trust the Daimyo, especially not Lord Taiko, he thinks this whole place will be his once we do the fighting for him but he's wrong."

Naruto turned back to Otogakure, to Konoha and he said, "It's ours. It'll be ours to nurture and protect like a newborn child, Shikamaru. The shinobi of Konoha reborn will make a land where people can live in safety and security. With a shinobi force strong enough and loyal enough to the people that our mercenary work will be over."

"You mean a ninja nation; not just a village of highly trained mercenaries in a corrupt nation but an actual elite military force protecting a new land. And who would rule it? Something like that could work if you could guarantee every successor would be strong enough to hold it together, but there are people who take power for power's sake, who care nothing for the individuals they don't see, who elevate themselves above all others." Shikamaru said.

"I know, and they're called Daimyo." Naruto laughed, "Even a Shinobi council can't be trusted, and the politics of Konoha's old council are proof of that. I think it shouldn't be one person leading, though. I think it should be the ninja, and the samurai, the merchants, the artisans and the common people . . . or at least representatives. A council of each class and caste to make a better world. Taking Konoha back is just the first step along that road. Once peace begins our real challenges will present themselves."

"I'll leave that to you. After this I'd like to retire, Hokage-sama."

Naruto was going to laugh but something in Shikamaru's tone just wasn't funny.

He was being serious.

And frankly Naruto couldn't blame him. He didn't doubt that Shikamaru's struggles had been difficult, and he hadn't doubted Sakura's warnings either.

Naruto folded his arms and said, "Nobody's earned it more . . . but Shikamaru I tasked you with-"

"I know." Shikamaru said abruptly, "But I'm tired. I'm old and I'm tired."

"What? But you're not old. We're the same age, and I know _I'm _not old." Naruto protested.

"Then maybe I'm just an old soul." Shikamaru shrugged, "All I know is I've seen more in my life than I ever wanted to see. I'm tired of being the one fate chooses to kick around just because I happen to be good at coming up with plans."

Shikamaru smiled slightly though and said, "At least that's what I thought I'd tell you at this point. Heaven knows I'm tired and sick of fighting and killing. It's all a pain you know? The kind that sticks with you too. But in the end when I look at that city in the distance . . . when I think of how close we are to finally ending this . . ."

The Konoha Genius put his hands behind his head and laughed softly but without mirth, "I think I'll be planning schemes for you and keeping this new ninja nation of yours from being torn apart by the jealous neighbors she's sure to have until the day I die."

"Or until Sumiko gets old enough to replace you." Naruto offered.

Shikamaru laughed, this time it sounded more sincere. "I'm not sadistic enough to hope my daughter ever has to suffer through this job. If it's something she want's to do I'll let her do it . . . but only after I make sure she knows how horrible it is."

"It's horrible planning plans and making sure our team gets to win in the end?" Naruto asked.

"No." Shikamaru yawned, "That part's just troublesome. The horrible part is standing here, talking to you as if nothing much is going on when our friends are fighting and maybe even dying in that city. That damned city that we're not even going to retake until our allies arrive. The horrible part is being too 'valuable' to be on the front lines. As if my life has any more value than Kakashi's or anyone else's."

Naruto frowned and nodded. "I know what you mean." He acknowledged, "I'm not really crazy about that part either."

He brightened up and said, "But it looks like the trouble is over. See there's some shapes coming across the wasteland."

"Bit early. Better make sure they're not being followed. Permission to take a squad and rendezvous with them? If I think they're being followed I'll lead them to the Mist staging area and onward, hopefully draw them right into the Kiri-nin and their army and still leave the camp undetected to make a move on the city."

"Sounds good. Should I assume you're taking your former students?"

"That's right." Shikamaru nodded.

"That's only a three man squad." Naruto said, "Take Sakura-chan too. You might need a medic."

Shikamaru saluted and disappeared into the trees.

Naruto watched the group of shapes as they rushed for the rendezvous point. It did seem like they were moving in a rush . . . and there were more of them than he'd expected . . .

* * *

Karin was surprised but Sasuke was significantly less obstinate tonight and as she led him back to Suigetsu she asked him, "Sasuke-kun, what do you think you'll do after the war?"

"I have plans." Sasuke said calmly.

"Of that I have no doubt." Karin said, hugging his arm as they walked.

This might have been pushing her luck too far, but Sasuke didn't shove her away so she pressed on, "Going to return to Konohagakure?"

"No. I'm not a Leaf Shinobi anymore, right?"

"And you wouldn't want to live under Naruto." Karin chuckled and now Sasuke did pull his arm away from her.

"Uzumaki Naruto is my friend. It may have taken me longer than most to recognize that, but it's the fact."

"I never meant to imply anything else." Karin said, forcing hurt into her voice, "All I meant was that my Sasuke-kun isn't the bowing and scraping type. You'd never simply serve."

Sasuke seemed to relax a bit and he said, "Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do."

"I think I know you better than you know yourself." Karin whispered into his ear and she slowed her pace as they neared Suigetsu's tent.

She'd put the next phase of her plan into motion just like Suigetsu wanted.

She whispered, "Imagine though if you were the master instead of the servant. Imagine being Naruto's . . . peer. His equal . . . better still his superior . . . the Lord of the stronger village. Just imagine . . . Mizukage. Lord of the Uchiha clan, the proudest and strongest clan of all of the Lands of Mist."

"The Lands of Mist? Don't you mean the Village Hidden in Mist?" Sasuke asked.

"Don't be silly. The Daimyo of the Lands of Water is an incompetent who gave his country a silly name, one that I feel like groaning every time I speak it. In any case Sasuke, given the Land's track record with bloodlines . . . well it seems a poor place for you to restore the Uchiha clan to its former glory if there's the danger of them being wiped out again, by a worthless Samurai the next time no less."

Sasuke whispered, "So the ambitions broaden, do they?"

"You're a man ruled by ambition, are you not?" Karin pressed, "You're one of a handful of truly remarkable beings born to this generation and your sons and daughters will be the heroes of the next. Tell me what Daimyo can claim a bloodline of greater destiny and prestige than the Uchiha? No, Sasuke-kun . . . you're meant to be more than just a village leader."

Sasuke closed his eyes and whispered, "You're just stroking my ego, Karin."

"I know you." Karin said. It was almost an admission of guilt, but she knew he'd never interpret it as such. She took his hand, intertwining their fingers and whispered, "Imagine the Uchiha clan as the Lords of Mist . . . the ruling bloodline of both the nation and its ninja village . . . imagine yourself and your wives ruling an entire nation and raising a clan more powerful than the one that Konoha squandered."

"Wives?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Well . . . Haruno Sakura and myself of course. Don't tell me you plan to rebuild an entire clan with just _one _woman. Besides, from a purely genetic standpoint . . . I have traits you know you want your children to have."

"Bad eyesight and megalomaniacal delusions?" Sasuke asked.

Karin blinked a few times.

She hadn't expected that response.

Sasuke however actually smiled and said, "So we come to the point, we come to what you're really after. You want to be some kind of queen-empress, is that it? And I suppose you're throwing Sakura into the mix so I'll be distracted leaving you to handle most of the actual governing?"

Well that and the hope that the overall number of Sharingan-wielding offspring would be increased without Karin actually having to do any extra child-baring. If she were to become the mother of a new Uchiha clan Karin wanted them to reach a position of strength quickly with as little strain on her own body and time as possible.

But she kept those thoughts to herself and shrugged. "Even if that were the case you'd get a clan and I'd get a country . . . does it genuinely sound like such a bad deal?"

"No." Sasuke admitted, "But I think I have my own plans, Karin. You just follow _my _lead."

"And what's in it for me?" Karin asked.

"I never said your plan was completely incompatible with my own . . . and if you want to call yourself queen-empress when this is all over that's your business." Sasuke said.

"What I call myself is irrelevant to the power I hope to wield. Truly I don't want to _call _myself anything but the mother of your children, Sasuke-kun" Karin said with a smile.

"Now you're overplaying it." Sasuke said coldly and proceeded at a normal pace to Suigetsu's tent.

Karin smiled slightly to his back and whispered, "You assume I was only acting."

But the plan was in motion, even if Sasuke had surprised her a bit.

She carried on jovially to Suigetsu's tent to join the war council, winking at Suigetsu when she entered.

It made him adopt an irritated scowl, but it was just her way of telling him that her plan was proceeding, even if he didn't fully realize what that would mean for him.

* * *

Shikamaru was close enough to get a better look at the refugees running for the camp and tried to find Kakashi in the crowd.

As the two groups closed Shikamaru was surprised to find so many faces that were both familiar and alien at the same time. People who had been a part of his everyday life revisited years later, it was strange and beautiful in a way he really didn't have time for.

"Where's Kakashi?" He asked the nearest person, a man he recognized vaguely as . . . that . . . ramen guy . . .

So his memory was vaguer than he'd expected.

"Kakashi's at the rear . . . watching our backs . . . he told us there's no time for the rendezvous point, we need to go straight to the camp and see the Hokage."

"Why? What happened?" Naomasa asked.

"Nao?" A far more familiar face cried, and Ichiteru burst through the crowd to throw an arm around her brother.

In her free hand she was holding a shortsword though it was free of blood so Shikamaru assumed there must not have been any severe fighting which made Naomasa's question all the more valid.

Why were they going straight for the camp?

But before he could ask Lady Ichiteru this another far more familiar face appeared.

Chouji came forward and shouted, "Shikamaru, the streets are filled with monsters!"

"What?" Shikamaru demanded.

"They were just pouring out of the castle, hundreds maybe thousands of them!" Chouji said, "They took Ino!"

"Why were either of you-" Shikamaru began but he stopped himself.

That didn't matter.

"We have to get these people to the rendezvous point, Chouji. We can't help Ino until we launch the attack, I'm sor-"

"We have to go now!" Chouji insisted and Kakashi finally appeared.

"He's right," Kakashi said, "I don't know why, but Orochimaru emptied the whole labyrinth on the city, there are first and second stage cursed forms running around in those streets, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru swore and said, "Yomiko, get back to camp and give the order to muster, tell Naruto we're coming back with the refugees but we won't have time to waste, tell him what Chouji has just told us, we'll help these people get back and I'll learn more about the situation, go!"

Yomiko spun a rapid about-face and ran like the wind back for the camp and Shikamaru fell in with the resistance refugees, moving at a slight jog that was probably the best these people could manage at the moment.

As they went Shikamaru heard Naomasa asking his eldest sister how she came to be here instead of on the island and the answer chilled his very heart.

"They sent someone to the island and had him summon us here. It was one of the five. I told them I'd only come if they left the children, but they lied and took the children too."

"Children? Not just Taiki? They took Saeki too?" Naomasa had asked.

"Saeki and a girl named Sumiko." Ichiteru had answered.

Shikamaru's eyes went wide and he actually stumbled mid-march, Chouji caught him and said, "Are you all right?"

"They have Sumiko?" Shikamaru demanded, "_Why_ do they have Sumiko?"

"They said she was too important a target not to take," Ichiteru said, "We have to go back for them, please!"

"We will." Shikamaru said a little too harshly, "and if that a single hair on my daughter's head is harmed a city full of monsters will be the least of Orochimaru's concerns."

There was a lot to consider, like how safe the island was now and what kind of damage must have been done in the attack that had so easily plucked people from it, what they were going to do about Orochimaru's unleashing his experiments on the city . . . but all that Shikamaru could think of was the fact that his daughter was in that city and no matter what Naruto or anyone else said they weren't waiting any longer.

* * *

"Well since Lady Karin of the Lead Shoes took so long to arrive I suppose I'll have to repeat myself," Suigetsu growled.

"Oh don't trouble yourself on my account, Mizukage-sama," Karin said, bowing low, "I apologize for my tardiness, I assumed you would not begin the council yet."

"There's no council to be held," Suigetsu said sharply, "it's obvious by now that Konoha has made it ahead of us. We can't just stand idly by, Taisho Ito tells me that he can have the army at Otogakure by midday tomorrow but we Shinobi could be there not long after midnight if we leave now."

"We would be outnumbered." Karin said and Suigetsu raised an eyebrow at her.

"You think so?" He asked with mock surprise. "Damn . . . Juugo, better cancel that order, I mean if we're going to be outnumbered-_of course _we will be outnumbered!" He roared, slamming his fist down on the table, "But we can hardly let our allies in Konoha throw their lives away."

"_They_ would be outnumbered too." Karin said, unfazed by Suigetsu's outburst so he tried to get a handle on his temper.

Anger wasn't going to help him here.

She told her, "I'm aware. But if they rushed ahead of us then there's only two possibilities: we are very slow, which we are not, or they've moved the timeframe up."

Sasuke nodded, "If Naruto is rushing ahead he probably means to attack right away. Unless that coward Shikamaru tries to stop him, and even then it would be hard to convince the Hokage not to retake his own village."

Suigetsu gestured to Sasuke, grateful for the unexpected help, "You see? Perhaps they discovered something dramatic that means the attack has to occur sooner, I don't know. What I do know is that we need to move and we need to move _now._ The army will prepare for a march, and lay siege to the city on their arrival. _We _will go ahead to . . . render aid to our allies."

Karin shrugged, "You don't need to explain your decisions to me, Mizukage-sama."

"Good then I won't have to explain this one; you're going to stay with the army, Karin."

Karin's eyes widened in shock and Suigetsu savored the expression. "What?" She demanded, "But Mizukage-sama, my-our-the _plan _was-"

"I thought you said I didn't need to explain my decisions?" Suigetsu sneered, causing Karin to angrily adjust her glasses as he continued. "You're the Chief Strategist; you'll be needed with the army in case we all die in a heroic fashion. Make sure this army breaks those walls, Karin; make sure we capture the city. We'll go ahead and open the way for you."

"Understood." Karin said, then she smiled and Suigetsu wondered if she hadn't hoped for that the whole time.

He wasn't sure what Karin might be playing at, but one thing was certain and it was that he didn't want to be worrying about her once they hit Konoha.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	86. Forced Hand

_The Emperor protects . . ._

**Chapter Eighty-Four**

Orochimaru seemed impassive as Kabuto told him the news of the Controller's murder.

"Don't you understand? Without a Yamanaka or someone of similar ability we simply can't control the horde. They'll crush the temple and everything in their path, there's nothing to keep them from coming back here and attacking us! It'll be chaos, and half the Five are AWOL."

"So your pets broke their leashes." Orochimaru said with a bemused smile and Kabuto had to bite back a retort.

"Yes, it seems that way." He acknowledged. "In any case it's obvious that it was either Kotaro or Yukio who killed the Controller, and we're unsure as to Kasumi's whereabouts as well."

"Did you bring me the Nara girl?" Orochimaru asked.

"Yes, but-"

"Then send her in. I will handle the broader matters; you know this palace is never undefended. You use Kurai and Shiroi to hunt down the other members of the Five and execute them all, save for Kotaro."

"Why just him? Why not just kill them all if we're just killing them." Kabuto demanded, unable to hide his irritation.

"We will when the time comes, but for now simply execute the other four."

"Wait, Shiroi and Kurai too?" Kabuto balked.

"It's what I told Kotaro-kun I would do. I'm a man of my word."

"Are you?" Kabuto demanded.

Orochimaru chuckled, "Well . . . when it suits me. Go, Kabuto-kun."

But Kabuto wasn't willing to just be dismissed, he said, "I won't throw away the Five, as I see it only Kotaro needs to die for his actions tonight and that's assuming they were his actions! We could have been infiltrated by Konoha shinobi, reports are still sketchy from the labyrinth survivors, and they say-"

"Kabuto-kun, I am displeased. I told Kotaro that when I became displeased there would be consequences. Now how does that threat hold water if here I stand displeased, and consequences do not follow?"

"All I am saying is that with the enemy at our gate it seems foolish to destroy our strongest fighters!" Kabuto protested.

"Our strongest disloyal fighters?"

"Shiroi is loyal to us, and Kurai is loyal to her, surely you realize that!" Kabuto protested.

"I realize more than you think." Orochimaru said coldly.

Kabuto was on the verge of outright refusing Orochimaru's order.

After all, how did he know for certain that _this _was Orochimaru? This _thing _had come from a scroll in a sealed off laboratory, and if Kabuto's experimentations had shown him anything it was that there were evils far darker than he'd ever anticipated attracted to old sites of death and pain.

_He _was Orochimaru; he was Orochimaru's heir, not Sasuke and not this . . . _thing_.

Wasn't he?

"It's been a very long time for us, Kabuto. It's too late to have second thoughts about following my instructions." Orochimaru said coldly, as if he could see into his thoughts.

Kabuto decided to find a compromise, "What about the child?"

"Shiroi and Kurai's child?" Orochimaru asked.

"No, the other one. The one entrusted to Kotaro's care. Kill her, it will show him that you are displeased with him and spare us the loss of anything of relevance."

Orochimaru smiled sinisterly, "And you have this child in custody?"

"No, I can only assume Kotaro took her with him. But when I find him . . ." Kabuto suggested.

"Very well. Your little henchmen survive for now. Bring them in and I will kill this infant in front of Kotaro's face . . . I do hope someday the Five realize just how much you care for them, Kabuto-kun. Enough to risk your own life for them."

Kabuto bowed slightly, not missing the implied threat, or the power that Orochimaru-sama radiated just in the speaking of it.

"I'll begin my search. Shall I send the girl in?"

"No . . . let her wait a moment." Orochimaru said, "I'll let the door guards know when I'm ready for her. I first have another interview I think . . ."

Kabuto noticed a dark figure standing near the balcony and nodded.

He bowed slightly and turned to leave, as he reached the door he heard Orochimaru say, "So . . . it's you. I thought you were dead. Welcome back . . . Okatsu."

* * *

"Slow down!" Naruto ordered.

Daisuke and a few members of the rescue party stood before the Hokage in his war tent.

Most of the Konoha Twelve were there, Sakura was noticeably absent because she was tending to Eri's injuries and that was all Daisuke could focus on.

The finest medic was tending to her but he wanted to be there himself, just to be sure.

His ninja discipline had waned over the years, the ability to make a calm and collected report while the woman he loved could be dying completely eluded him at the moment.

"Sir-I mean Hokage-sama, yes sir, I-" Daisuke stammered and Naruto put a hand on his shoulder.

"Every second counts, but I need you to take your time and tell me what happened." The Hokage said calmly.

"They're emptying out their labyrinth," Daisuke said, his hands shaking, "their experiments, cursed forms and other kinds of monsters, they're pouring into the streets. They were leading them out in and orderly fashion, I think maybe they planned to use them to defend the palace, but when I tried to rescue the Ishida clan there was a riot, they got loose."

"There's no question," Inoichi said, "they wouldn't have just run rampant. They would have gassed the place or used the Controllers to get them under control, this has to be part of his plan."

"That's assuming he has enough Controllers though," one of Eri's sisters, Aneko said. "I heard them talking, as I understand it most of the Controllers were executed after some prisoners escaped."

Ino's father looked surprised but he didn't speak.

"What about Ino?" Chouji-sensei asked, "She's a Yamanaka, they might force her to-"

"No." Inoichi said firmly, "Ino doesn't know how to control that many minds, it wouldn't work. Being a Controller took a great deal of torturous training, Ino won't learn it overnight."

"Then what'll they do to her?" Chouji-sensei asked quietly.

"Keep her as a hostage in case they need to negotiate." Inoichi said, folding his arms. "Hokage-sama, I think it's clear we can't wait around. We need to launch a full attack now."

Naruto-sama hesitated, then said, "We'll need to use the Nine-tails. It's the only way."

"Of course we will," Tenten said, "I thought that was our plan all-"

"No." The Hokage said, "I mean just the Nine-tails. I'll go in and try to draw them to me . . . I don't know what'll happen if you're all running around too."

"It's a risk we have to take," Shikamaru said, "because we're not going to let you die alone. I hate to say this, Hokage-sama but the path is obvious; we need to mount a full scale attack right now."

"You don't think that's what Orochimaru is hoping for?" Neji asked.

"I don't think we have a choice, not unless we want the blood of the entire city on our hands." Shikamaru said.

"Do we have any kind of plan?" Naruto asked.

"I have some ideas, but I can't stress enough that we need to move out quickly." Shikamaru said. "The safety of the civilians is going to have to a priority, but remember that a lot of these creatures are innocent victims themselves. If you can incapacitate them without killing them do it."

There was a series of nods before Shikamaru continued, "Sakura and at least half of the other medics should be standing by to tend to any injured civilians, but I want at least one medic with each strike team, these teams are going to have to hunt down and subdue the escaped prisoners, victims or not they're dangerous."

"Understood." Neji said. "I assume you'll want at least one Hyuuga with each of these teams as well."

"Right. We'll want two squads in addition per unit or ten men total, each of you'll pick a squad and lead them, but Neji and Hinata, take the remainder of your clan and form search parties, escort people out of the city and make sure nothing follows them, get them to Sakura's medic corp."

Shikamaru looked at Daisuke and asked, "Are you fit to participate in this, Oedo?"

Daisuke hesitated, he wanted to see Eri . . . but he nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Good, I'll need you with me then. Inoichi too. I'll lead six squads to secure the perimeter of the palace, the remainder of our shinobi force should try to get to Orochimaru's temple."

"But won't that be the one place immune to the invasion?" Tenten asked, "If Inoichi is correct Orochimaru won't send his monsters there."

"Doesn't make it safe. If it leads to the labyrinth it'll be a great way in. Even if it doesn't, who knows what else they have under that place." Shikamaru said.

"Who will lead that force?" Lee asked.

"I will." Naruto-sama said, and Shikamaru nodded.

Naruto looked around at the assembled shinobi; Tenten, Lee, Chouji, Konohamaru, Shiho, Kurenai, Kakashi, Neji, Hinata and Inoichi, Daisuke felt small in their presence, as if he didn't belong in this room full of legends.

"This is the end of our road, everyone," Naruto said, and Daisuke felt as if he were present for a moment that would soon be recorded in the history books.

"It could be that most of us won't see each other again when this is over, whatever happens I want you all to know that I believe in you and you're all the finest Shinobi I've ever known. Know that we are fighting for a better tomorrow, believe i-"

"We need to go." Hinata interrupted, and the entire tent quickly emptied, everyone eager to assemble a squad and get moving.

Shikamaru put a hand on Daisuke's shoulder and said, "We need to be ready to go in five minutes, but if you want to tell Sakura her orders I'd appreciate it."

Daisuke nodded, recognizing that Shikamaru was giving him the chance to check on Eri before they left.

Daisuke bowed slightly and rushed off. He also noticed Chouji-sensei leaving and quickly caught up with him.

"Chouji-sensei . . . I'm sorry you had to come after me." Daisuke told him as they walked at a rushed pace, "I know we don't have time for a lot of talking but I think I know why Shikamaru wants me and Inoichi in his squad, and I know you must be concerned about Ino-san, and I promise you-"

Chouji shook his head, "Don't take any risks." He said, "What happened wasn't your fault, and she's going to be okay, Emiko said so. Just keep yourself safe, Daisuke. Promise me you'll do that."

Daisuke nodded, and smiled slightly, "As safe as I can in a war zone."

Chouji nodded.

Daisuke then rushed to Sakura, to see Eri perhaps for the last time.

* * *

Miyuki tightened the bandages around her arms as the cries grew louder.

People were seeing monsters outside, some were praying furiously to the Five for protection that wasn't coming.

Miyuki took a deep breath and said a quick prayer to a different god, one that she hadn't honored in years.

She didn't have equipment pouches full of shuriken and holsters full of kunai, she didn't have swords or spears.

All she had was herself, her skills and a broken broom handle.

So a prayer couldn't hurt, even if she couldn't bring herself to pray to the so-called God Emperor.

A part of her felt ashamed for praying at all, given the route her unworthy life had taken.

With her final preparations made she shouldered the makeshift staff and started to walk for the door.

"Bar the door behind me," She ordered the nearest group of priests, "lead the people into the lower sections."

"What are you doing?" The High Priest shouted, "You dress as a heretic!"

"I'm not fighting in a dress." Miyuki said calmly.

"It's your heresy that is allowing them to cross the barrier projected by the Emperor's power!"

He was grasping at straws to explain the situation, but Miyuki wasn't interested in arguing with him. "Regardless of the "why" they're doing it." Miyuki snarled. "I don't see the Five, or any sort of angels descending to protect us, so it's time those of us with the ability do something to stem the tide do so. Now step aside."

The High Priest moved to slap her, but Miyuki's staff blocked his hand and she hit him back instead, knocking him off of his feet.

She turned to the group of priests she'd addressed before, "Did I not tell you to get these people to safety?" She shouted.

"The lower wards are forbidden, and-"

"You will protect these people!" Miyuki ordered, "Take them to the lower wards. If you're afraid of letting them see the Emperor's true face then perhaps you should ask yourself why. Aren't you proud of the work you do in his holy name?"

"There's no way this many people will fit beneath this holy temple!" The High Priest protested.

Miyuki knew that was a lie, there was simply no way this many people would fit in the lower reaches of the temple before they started to see the things they desperately shouldn't be seeing.

Miyuki knew she wouldn't want to inflict the nightmares beneath on anyone, but she'd rather these people live beyond the few seconds she might buy them.

"Take them as deep as you need to, spare them the horrors of our trade where you can but save their lives."

"You won't be able to stop those _things_." The High Priest snarled.

Miyuki snarled right back, "I know that, and you're only wasting the time I'm trying to buy these innocents."

She continued towards the door and saw that there was a small group of people gathered there with makeshift weapons.

She nodded to them and said, "Protect the entrance to the lower wards."

"We're going with you." One of them, a shrine maiden said.

Miyuki considered, "Any of you trained as shinobi?"

Nobody raised their hand or made any sort of noise of confirmation.

Miyuki smiled slightly, "Guard the people in the lower wards, in the open a Shinobi has an advantage but in a confined space you'll have a better chance."

"You'll die alone." The woman told her.

Miyuki's smile broadened, "I'll die with help. Don't die with me, keep these people alive. It's a shinobi's duty to dedicate their life and death to the people, isn't it?" Miyuki swallowed a nervous lump in her throat.

"Well I'm a shinobi." She said.

The door opened and she stepped out into the cool night air. It was closed behind her and she watched as the creatures outside the gates began to howl with rage.

Miyuki accepted it.

Most of these were not her victims, but they were still victims of the same sort of cruelty she had inflicted.

Both they and she were broken, damaged creatures. She couldn't fix the wrongs that had been done to them, but she could grant some of them a swift release, and they would grant her own.

The first made it over the gates only to be crushed beneath them as the horde sent them crashing down. A part of Miyuki reflected that, had she been there, Hitomi might have laughed, and it made her smile to think of her friend.

Hitomi would have loved this; a hopeless final charge.

Miyuki held her hands up and shouted, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

* * *

Naomasa still couldn't believe his entire family was here in the camp, that they'd been dragged from all corners of the Great Five Countries, even Ichiteru had been taken from the safety of the island.

Kotaro would pay for that.

But for now all they could do was watch Sakura tend to Eri.

Daisuke approached them and said, "Haruno-san, um, Naruto-sama and Shikamaru want you to take control of half the medics and be prepared to receive casualties."

"Understood." Sakura said calmly, "I'm through here anyway."

She glanced at Daisuke and smiled slightly, "She's going to be fine physically. I can only imagine what she's been through."

Just more that Naomasa would make the enemy pay for.

As if on cue Eri's eyes shot open and Daisuke rushed over.

"Eri? Are you all right?" Daisuke asked.

Eri stared at him for a moment, then whispered, "Where am I? Why are you here?"

Daisuke laughed, "You're in the camp of Konoha's ninja liberation force . . . and in another two minutes we're going to go take back our city."

Eri smiled a somewhat subdued smile, and asked, "Is my brother here?"

Nao frowned, "I'm right here." He told her.

Eri turned her head from her prone position to look at him. She sounded almost drunk when she said, "Naomasa . . . I don't know if this will help . . . but Kabuto liked to talk while he worked . . ."

Nao frowned, "I don't-"

Eri waved a hand lightly, "He found something . . . you might want to know . . ." Eri smiled a somewhat crooked smile, "all the things we do . . . my climbing, Emiko's predicting . . . we're using chakra little brother . . ."

**To Be Continued . . .**


	87. Exit Miyuki

_A dream . . . an illusion . . . a nightmare_

**Chapter Eighty-Five**

Nao shook his head, "You need to just rest, Eri."

"Yeah . . . but I'm not lying." Eri said. "He called it . . . a Kekkei Genkai? We use chakra . . . but it's not normal chakra . . ."

"You can climb chakra-repelling surfaces," Naomasa told her, "Minako and Emiko's predictions have nothing to do with using a Jutsu, only Ichiteru and Atsuko might be using a chakra based ability."

Eri shook her head slowly. "Maybe he's wrong . . . but if he's not . . . I thought it might help you, baby brother."

Nao offered his sister a half smile, "How? I've never had a special ability like you girls, for all we know only the women in our family get to be special."

Eri scoffed. "Dad made a merchant empire . . . that's pretty special. Besides . . . if it's chakra you can do it, Nao. If you want . . . if you _need_ something badly enough . . . it'll work. That's how . . . it was for . . . all of us." Eri mumbled and closed her eyes. "It's not just desire . . . it's a passion . . . an uncontrollable love for . . . what we do . . ."

Daisuke turned to Nao, "We should go . . . Shikamaru is going to want us to form up with the rest of the squads."

Nao nodded and followed Daisuke, thinking on what Eri had said.

Was it possible? Did he have a bloodline trait? Could he really use a strange type of chakra?

No. She had to be wrong; Kabuto must have been talking about someone else.

Assuming he'd said any of it at all. Maybe Eri was just delusional.

Nao didn't say anything as he and Daisuke walked, he just considered his sister's words.

Hard as they were to believe . . .

* * *

Orochimaru smiled sinisterly as the attractive blonde woman entered his chamber.

"I'm sorry I'm so tardy, Lord Orochimaru." Okatsu said softly, "I was shuffled loose my mortal coil, so to speak."

"And yet you preserved yourself." Orochimaru said approvingly. He could not see any signs, but he could sense Okatsu's chakra and presence. She had taken control of this woman, this . . . Yamanaka clanswoman, if Orochimaru was not mistaken.

"As I learned from you, Lord." Okatsu said with a slight bow.

"I don't recall teaching you that." Orochimaru said casually.

"Surely you haven't forgotten that I once hosted your own immortal essence, Lord." Okatsu said, bowing slightly again.

Orochimaru smiled, "And no doubt you used this Yamanaka's mind influencing techniques as a bridge to make the necessary connection . . . clever. Very clever; I approve."

"I knew you would." Okatsu said, clearly thrilled.

"You arrived with the Konoha forces?" Orochimaru asked. "How did you disguise yourself for so long?"

"Just as you left enough of Mitarashi Anko to taunt Kotaro, I did not completely snuff out Yamanaka Ino; I keep her around . . . a consultant if you will. She's been most helpful, though she does get a bit . . . noisy."

Orochimaru nodded, "I had similar problems with this body at first . . . it will pass after hopelessness sets in. So you too are now nearly an immortal, Okatsu . . . do you feel divine?"

"Oh no. You remain the only one who can claim any progress on the path of immortality." Okatsu seemed almost to shrink as an unexpected humility overcame her. "It was chance that offered me this body; alone I would have vanished into the ether like anyone else."

Orochimaru smiled encouragingly, "Ah, but you've taken your first steps. Your resourcefulness does you credit, Okatsu . . . and with Kabuto becoming increasingly unreliable and selfish you may soon find that I have a position open at my right hand."

Okatsu smiled and said, "I would never dare to presume above my station."

"So what can you tell me of the Konoha forces?"

"Only that a small portion of their army is here now, slightly less than eight score shinobi, no soldiers. Forces from Sunagakure and Kirigakure should arrive in support soon; I believe the Kirigakure forces were expected at dawn."

Orochimaru considered, it seemed Kabuto's little kingdom was crumbling around him.

No matter. Let all the flies come to him and he would swat them all down in a single blow.

For now the test subjects ran the streets, by dawn when the Kirigakure forces arrived the city would be one filled with monsters, demons ready to rend the flesh of any who came within their walls.

And when they had exhausted themselves fighting his hordes of fodder he would unleash his shadow army upon them, his own force of loyal shinobi zealots should be more than sufficient.

Even if the Five weren't there to lead them.

Orochimaru laughed and said, "Very well. Let the Nara brat come in now."

"The Nara brat? Whom do you mean, Lord?" Okatsu asked.

Orochimaru smiled, "Kotaro-kun managed to capture Nara Sumiko along with a few other surprises when he infiltrated the traitor island. With you here now, I will show her just how far my arm can reach: far enough to take one of her father's closest allies and make her my own slave . . . that is, if you don't mind playing the part of Yamanaka Ino one last time."

"I relish the opportunity . . . but I think, if you will permit, that Sumiko-chan will be more cooperative if we both enjoy a bit of . . . role playing, Lord." Okatsu said with a sinister smile.

* * *

Naomasa reached Shikamaru-sensei and noticed that Yomiko wasn't there.

"Sensei? Where is-"

"Yomiko is with her mother. Her abilities will be somewhat more useful defending the city." Shikamaru said, "I want you with me, we're going to make sure no reinforcements make it out of the palace."

"Yes . . ." Naomasa said, hesitating.

Why was Yomiko being sent off on a far more dangerous assignment? Why weren't they going to stay together as usual? They were a team . . .

Shikamaru didn't turn to look at him, but he seemed to sense Nao's hesitation because he said, "Yomiko is a far more aggressive fighter than you are, and the forces in the city need to be swift. It's not because of your hesitancy to take lives that I'm keeping you with me, Naomasa. In fact that compassion would be an asset fighting against these victims of Orochimaru's cruelty. I need you with me for another reason . . . and this reason may result in you having to forget your compassion just this one time."

Naomasa swallowed a lump in his throat, but nodded. "I . . . I'll-"

"Come on," Shikamaru said, "we need to go now."

Naomasa didn't even have time to respond, he simply began to run.

As did nearly the entire Konoha shinobi force.

With only a few exceptions left to guard the exhausted resistance refugees in the camp, every ninja made their move to assault Otogakure . . . one last deadly charge.

Naomasa considered Eri's words again . . .

Did he have the ability to be like his sisters? Do have his heart's desire simply happen because he willed it so?

No . . . Hitomi had spent nearly five long years disproving _that _theory . . .

So . . . what if Eri had it wrong?

She had to be wrong . . . he wasn't a special kind of ninja, he was just a ninja.

He didn't have any bloodline inheritance besides maybe a small fortune his father might be leaving him.

He watched the city grow nearer as the shinobi army neared it.

They were unopposed, no archers on the walls, none of their dark opposites to attack them and whatever wards might warn the Sound shinobi of an incoming attack were irrelevant; the enemy already knew they were here and after setting a legion of monsters on the civilian populace they had to know they were coming.

And Naomasa thought to himself, If I could have any one thing I want . . . it's definitely to see this city rescued from people like that.

He swallowed a lump in his throat and thought of Saeki.

Hitomi's daughter was alone in there somewhere . . . and damn it all he'd find her. He wouldn't just leave that girl to suffer alone in the hell that thought up monsters and used them as shuriken fodder.

He felt like he sensed a glimpse of how Shikamaru-sensei felt. Saeki was just the daughter of a friend. Sumiko was Shikamaru-sensei's daughter, and Naomasa knew his Sensei must be prepared to rip Orochimaru's castle apart stone by stone to find her.

He could already hear the screaming and wild wails as they neared the edge of the walls. The city seemed dark, almost no lights burned, it was just a pitch black slaughter as the rioting prisoners dealt death to unprotected citizens behind those chakra-repelling walls . . .

Chouji rolled like a boulder and slammed into the wall, and though it might have been chakra-repellant that didn't mean it could withstand such a high force attack.

Even so it took Chouji four hits to break a hole through the thick and powerful walls.

Naomasa knew that Daisuke had told Sensei about a secret entrance they might have used if they weren't in a rush to get several scores of shinobi into the city right away.

Sometimes the brute force approach really was the best.

The Shinobi of Konoha poured through the hole in the wall of this alien city and met resistance right away.

Naomasa wasn't near enough to the front lines to see it, but he could hear the wild roars and saw the flashes of fire style techniques.

Once he was through the gap, sticking close to Shikamaru-sensei they scaled a nearby building and began running and leaping over the rooftops.

"Never mind the fighting in the streets," Shikamaru shouted to Naomasa and Daisuke, who were closest to him. "The other teams will handle that. They'll do their jobs, we need to do ours, get to the castle and secure its perimeter, if those things are still pouring out of the labyrinth we need to stop them and stop any shinobi or samurai that try to get out!"

Naomasa nodded, though his Sensei wouldn't see it.

He understood, though the screams were hard to endure.

He had his mission; the others would handle the rest.

But he noticed as they ran that it was not just heartlessness or concern for Sumiko that had urged Shikamaru-sensei to declare their path a no-fighting zone.

Past the point of entry the path to the castle was almost quiet.

There were no screams, just the occasional sounds of scuttling claws on the pavement bellow.

The monsters had already been through here and the people had either fled . . . or they hadn't.

* * *

The dark night was illuminated by the fires that had started to spread in the temples' gardens.

It seemed one of the monstrosities had the ability to breath fire, and he was fairly determined to set the temple ablaze.

Miyuki was not overly concerned; the temple was warded against most elemental attacks. It was the brute force of a thousand claws and fists that would splinter the doors; all the fire breather would do was singe the lawn.

But keeping the monsters at bay as proving to be far more than Miyuki was capable of. She had no equipment, no explosive tags, no blades, just a broken broom handle.

Her two shadow clones had less.

One of them jumped onto the back of a large mantis-like beast. It was perhaps a dozen feet tall and its legs were probably twice that. An armless human torso came out of the thorax like some sort of grotesque insect-centaur, but the head was not remotely human, lacking any kind of eyes but having instead a grotesque trio mouths, two of them were circular and where its eyes should have been, though they were filled with rows of razor sharp fangs. The other, not where a normal mouth would be but instead going up the center of its face sported two grotesque mandibles, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the face.

The clone climbed up the back of the humanoid torso and wrapping a bandage from each arm around what passed for its neck. She grasped the ends with each opposing hand she kicked hard as if she were hoping to pop the creature's head clean off.

It was made of stronger stuff of course and Miyuki knew it. But the action did cause the large creature to tumble to the ground twitching in pain, upsetting some of the others near it.

A mostly humanoid beast with blades protruding from its arms and legs rushed for the clone causing the distress. Miyuki herself interceded to keep her clone from being dismissed and used her pitiful broom handle to keep the monster just out of reach of both her and the clone.

Rational thought seemed to have left the creature, or it might have tried something radical like cutting through the broom handle, or just rushing her, but instead it seemed afraid of being jabbed by the nearly harmless object, instead hissing and roaring just out of her reach.

The large mantis creature had four long spiny legs but lacked a mantis's claws, which was lucky because if it had had them it might have killed all three of the irritating creatures standing on its massive back with its next move.

It lowered its torso so that its head was level with its thorax, then one of its legs swept over its back.

Miyuki fell to her back to let the leg sweep the humanoid creature away but she wasn't fast enough and she was thrown aside too, feeling sharp spines stab into her left side as the leg impacted on her.

She hit the ground hard and rolled, her shadow clone was gone and Miyuki had the memory of seeing the massive leg slam into her own head with such force that had it been the real her, the fight would have been over.

Not that it wasn't nearly over anyway.

She'd bought perhaps a minute or two, but it had felt like a year.

She wasn't a fighter.

She wasn't Hitomi.

She wasn't Hara . . .

Thinking of Hara, imagining him tortured as these beings had filled her with a new resolve and though it hurt she lifted herself up off the ground.

A horrific, bloated creature covered in oozing boils rushed towards her with a speed that defied its bulbous form, and she barely had time to leap to the side as it inhaled and blew out a thick green mist.

The giant mantis's back legs buckled when they came in contact with the mist. Almost immediately they began to go raw as the chitin shell was melted away by the cloud of, what Miyuki could only assume was some sort of acid.

The bulbous monstrosity turned its head towards her and inhaled again, Miyuki scrambled to get away.

It breathed its corrosive gas towards her, engulfing the blade-covered monstrosity and another more feline creature.

Miyuki got a flash of her second clone's final moments, recalling that closer to the door a prisoner with shark-like qualities had just taken a bite out of her spine as she struggled to use her bandage binding technique to pull something apelike off of the door.

They'd be inside the temple soon.

Miyuki dared to spare a glance to the temple to see that both the ape and the shark were hammering on the door, the ape-man's massive forearms making thundering cracks as they impacted.

Her heart sank further when she saw another creature rip an ornamental iron serpent from a window, shattering it and revealing the frightened, screaming people within.

_Why didn't they take them bellow?_ Miyuki wondered in despair.

She now felt as if she had truly failed. She had thought that in this fight, this last act of redemption she could truly delay this horde long enough for these people to get to safety.

She'd been wrong.

Either they were still moving them bellow or they'd never bothered to start, because the temple still seemed pretty full.

She turned almost resigned to her fate to see the pus covered monster was almost directly over her in the short time she'd spared to glance at the temple and though she struck out with her staff the creature barely seemed bothered and the stick sank deep into its gut.

Boils burst on the monster's stomach where the staff made contact and still more acid splashed onto the wooden stick, eating away at it.

Miyuki let go of the weapon and stumbled back as the creature took a deep breath.

There would be no escaping it this time.

She'd known how her last stand would end, and she'd thought she was prepared for it but now that the moment was upon her she couldn't stop a terrified sob from emitting from her lips as the bloated creature's head came forward for its killing breath.

Of course she was moving, though she understood the futility of it. Her conscious mind knew she couldn't get away in time, but her body didn't care.

Her body wanted to live. Her body was going to move her legs, and her body was going to run.

Her body wasn't going to make it though, and Miyuki's conscious mind decided to close her eyes.

She wasn't the sort of girl who stared death in the face.

* * *

Kabuto smiled at Nara Sumiko, though she seemed intent on pretending he wasn't there. He wondered to himself when he had become a messenger boy for Lord Orochimaru . . . why didn't Orochimaru simply get off of that throne and invite the girl in himself? After all, for all his lack of concern Kabuto did have a nation to preserve.

He watched Sumiko and very seriously considered not taking her to see Lord Orochimaru at all.

He considered something entirely different.

He glanced at the shinobi guards and asked, "Have the Five been located yet?"

"Sire, no." One of the Hunters said, "As you ordered we tapped Akuma Kurai to use his insects to hunt for them, but only he and Shiroi are known."

"Do you know where Lady Shiroi is?" Kabuto asked.

"Sire, she is in her quarters awaiting orders."

"Excellent . . ." Kabuto smiled. "Lord Orochimaru will want this girl to speak to him in another moment, you take her to him. You," Kabuto indicated the other guard, "come with me."

The Hunter did not respond verbally, but fell into step behind Kabuto.

He walked with haste and when they were out of earshot of the other Hunter Kabuto whispered, "The test subjects unleashed, they were all of the second stage curse afflicted, correct?"

"Yes, Lord Kabuto."

"And their number?"

"Some hundreds, Lord." The man said, "As you know much of the stock was sent to the battle in Waves and-"

"How many first stage afflicted do we have in the labyrinth?" Kabuto asked.

"I am not sure, Lord." The Hunter admitted hesitantly.

"Find out. Bring me the numbers or the chief scientist if he's still alive. After that assemble my Shinobi forces and detail the warrior regiments to take defensive positions throughout the palace."

"Yes, Lord, but the warrior regiments have already taken defensive positions-"

"I mean all of them." Kabuto clarified, "even the ones guarding the labyrinth's entrances and exists, recall half the men on the walls the all those filling the courtyard, I want every spear in this palace ready to repel the Konoha invaders."

"You think they'll come instead of trying to fight back the horde?" The hunter asked.

"I think I give orders to be carried out, not questioned." Kabuto said coolly. "Go, and go quickly. The future of the Sound Shogunate and the Empire depend on your speed."

The Hunter disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Kabuto smiled sinisterly as he reached Shiroi's door.

He knocked twice and after a moment it flung open.

"Lord!" Shiroi breathed a sigh of relief. "Where am I being sent? Who am I killing? Never mind who. Just tell me where, I'm ready!"

"How is your child?" Kabuto asked calmly.

"Asleep, is it of any matter?" Shiroi asked, glancing back into her quarters, "The palace hasn't been breached has it?"

"No . . . but it will be soon." Kabuto said, and he smiled at the sudden concern that filled Shiroi's formerly blood thirsty expression. "I personally promise your son's safety, Shiroi, my most loyal. Provided you are willing to remain my most loyal."

"Anything, Lord." Shiroi said, "I am ever at the command of the Empire."

Kabuto smiled, and very carefully told her of his plans, and the part she would play in them.

**To Be Continued . . .**


	88. Hasty Decisions

_It's Quiet . . ._

**Chapter Eighty-Six**

Sumiko entered the rather lavish looking room and looked around at the beautiful furnishings.

They'd had nothing like any of this back home on the island. Was this the sort of life her parents had left behind when they left Konohagakure?

No wonder they wanted to come back so badly.

Syako was forced to wait outside and the door was slammed shut behind Sumiko.

She felt nervous, but curious as well. She explored her surroundings a bit, not moving from the spot she stood but letting her eyes take in the details of the room.

The room was not very well lit, but Sumiko could see it was filled with gold ornaments and violet curtains hung from the walls and over doorways. There was a grand seat, perhaps a throne though Sumiko didn't now why one would keep a throne in their living quarters and assumed it must simply appear to be one because of its beauty which, like most of the things in the room, was extraordinary.

_ And yet cold. _She thought.

The room seemed empty and when she heard a voice she jumped in surprise while simultaneously feeling relived not to be alone.

It was a feminine voice, though Sumiko wasn't willing to commit to any gender assumptions until she saw the person.

"Come here, little one. We're on the balcony." The voice said.

Sumiko entered onto the balcony and felt relief flood through her as she saw a pair of Konoha ninja.

One of them was aunty Ino.

She rushed over and hugged Ino, who hugged her back and said, "I didn't think I'd see you here, Sumi-chan. Don't worry, your ordeal is as good as over."

Sumiko looked at the other woman, she had eyes that seemed familiar and her chest was impressive leaving Sumiko absolutely ninety percent certain that she was a woman, but she was someone Sumiko didn't know.

"Who?" Sumiko asked her with a raised eyebrow.

The woman smiled, "I'm Mitarashi Anko, I'm Kotaro-kun's mother . . . I'm sorry he brought you here, but he did it to keep them from hurting me. He's really a very nice boy."

Sumiko nodded, if aunty Ino was friends with her than Mitarashi Anko must be a friendly person and Sumiko would accept that. Now came the part where she had to wonder if this were a rescue operation-no, because Anko had been in danger so Kotaro had had to kidnap her and the others to keep her safe.

That meant Ino must have been captured, but she said the ordeal was as good as over, did she know something?

Ino wasn't stingy with her information, she said, "Your father and the others are nearby, Sumiko. They're going to attack soon and rescue us all. You don't have to worry anymore."

Sumiko nodded but said nothing.

The three of them left the balcony and went into the living space of the lavish apartment.

"Lovely, isn't it?" Ino sighed, "so much nicer than anything we had on the island."

Sumiko nodded yet again, but wondered why aunty Ino was stating the obvious. Maybe she was telling Anko? Seemed funny not to tell Anko sooner if it was worth saying at all.

"Imagine living every day in this kind of place." Anko said, nodding in agreement with Ino. "Would you like that, Sumiko-chan?"

Sumiko nodded again, but didn't see what relevance this had with anything.

"They'll rescue us soon." Ino said assured her.

"Yes . . . in the meantime," Anko said, "Sumiko-chan, why don't you relax here with us? Obviously they want to keep all the important prisoners together. Maybe they plan to use you as a hostage the same way they use me."

Sumiko shrugged. That made sense, but her father would rescue her, just like aunty Ino said.

Though . . . there was something strange about Ino . . . something unfamiliar.

Sumiko cocked her head to the side and examined her honorary aunt . . .

It was really her, Sumiko was sure of that . . . it _felt _like aunty Ino . . . but it didn't.

It was strange.

And the other woman, Anko . . . she felt familiar too . . .

Sumiko had been relieved to see Ino, but . . . now that her mind was working again she began to question the situation.

_Balcony. _Sumiko realized.

There was an open balcony . . .

But there had to be guards, or aunty Ino would have already tried to get out that way.

Or the balcony was as Genjutsu . . .

Perhaps their surroundings were nothing but Genjutsu . . . after all, why give prisoners such a lavish room?

Even if every room in this palace were so luxurious-and they weren't, the room Sumiko had arrived in hadn't been-why keep prisoners in such a beautiful place?

_Is it so we won't try to escape? No, that's stupid, _Sumiko thought; _even in a paradise a prisoner is a prisoner and has to try to escape._

Her mother had told her that once when Sumiko asked her why they didn't just stay on the island.

She felt a little sad thinking of her mother, and hoped she was nearby . . . she knew her father must be close if Ino was here.

"You know . . ." Ino whispered, "if we could make it to the Control Chamber . . . I'll bet I could take control of those monsters out there."

"Monsters?" Sumiko asked, surprised. There were monsters outside? Why hadn't anyone told her?

Wait . . . monsters were real? Why had her parents lied to her? She _knew _there was something in her closet.

"The city is swarming with monsters, the sad victims of experiments that these people have been performing for the last four years." Anko said in a sad voice. "All the time your father spent in hiding gave these terrible people more and more time to turn more and more people into monsters, little one. There are thousands, and those are just the ones that survived. Only one in ten people survives the process, tens maybe even hundreds of thousands of people were worked on while your father hid away."

Sumiko tensed. Aunty Ino wasn't arguing, why wasn't she arguing?

Instead Ino said, "They used members of the Yamanaka clan to control them, Mitarashi-senpai . . . if you can get me to that control room we can take control of the horde, make them help the Konoha-shinobi."

"Impossible." Anko said with a gasp, "Are you sure you could do it?"

"I can try." Ino said then she hesitated, "but . . . I don't know if I could direct so many monsters . . . I'm not a strategist like Shikamaru . . . and the city is full of almost two hundred enemy Shinobi . . . maybe if another person were with me . . . someone with a sharp mind . . ."

Sumiko's eyes lit up.

_I can do that, _she thought, _I can help Aunty Ino use the monsters to destroy all the ninja in the city and help daddy to rescue me!_

All she said was, "Me!"

Anko seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded, "I like the idea . . . the daughter of Shikamaru must be almost as smart as he is, but "almost" isn't good enough. Orochimaru _is _just as smart as Shikamaru, so you'd have to be even smarter than your father. Can you do that? Can you outsmart someone who is just as smart as your father?"

Sumiko hesitated.

She had won games against her father . . . and if what Aunty Ino said was true then she'd have about ten times as many pieces as this Orochimaru did . . .

Sumiko nodded and said, "I'll win."

Anko smiled at Ino and said, "Then let's get you two to that control room."

* * *

Orochimaru had to admit that he wasn't sure just how useful Sumiko would be in actually outfoxing her own father.

But the idea of letting Shikamaru's own daughter take co-control of a monster horde and try her very best to slaughter the Konoha attack force thinking she was in some way helping her own father to rescue her . . . well that was just too delicious to refuse.

He watched Okatsu carefully as they went about pretending to escape from his quarters.

He did pity the unfortunate guards posted outside, but they were a necessary sacrifice.

Sumiko-chan had to believe this was genuine.

Okatsu was a surprisingly devious mind. Perhaps being shuffled loose from her own body had removed some of her unfortunate tendencies . . . in any event she'd been right that appearing as Kotaro's mother would help in making Sumiko cooperate, and ultimately though Orochimaru had planned to use her as a hostage against Shikamaru if the girl actually proved to be an asset . . .

Okatsu had said that Ino believed the girl's mind worked a mile a minute, so fast that regular speech wasn't just something she didn't do, but something she almost _couldn't _do.

A mind like that guided by a Yamanaka's abilities could make an incredibly powerful Controller.

* * *

Despite the darkness Shikamaru could see the high walls surrounding the palace in greater detail as they came nearer.

There were barely any guards, which would make things easier.

"It looks like soldiers on the palace walls," Shikamaru shouted to his squads, "take them all out quietly, with any luck we won't get noticed by any that might be in the courtyards. Sensors be on the lookout for any of the Five and make sure nothing else gets out of these walls."

The shinobi forces came nearer and Shikamaru began surveying the building.

"Inoichi," he whispered, "can you navigate inside that castle?"

"I lived there as a glorified prisoner, but I saw it all through the eyes of the Five. I can get you anywhere they were allowed." Ino's father said.

"What about the monsters from the labyrinth?" Shikamaru asked.

"They weren't really my concern, but I did occasionally oversee them. Mostly Kabuto used chemicals to control them, along with sever conditioning. For some of them he would layer subliminal commands, but for the most part-"

Shikamaru interrupted the older shinobi, saying, "All I need to know is if you can take control of the horde."

Inoichi hesitated, and then said, "It'd be hard . . . but I think I could do it. I wouldn't be able to outright control them though, only suggest really strongly that they do what we want, and with the slaughter they're already inflicting they might be too deep into bloodlust to be stopped."

Confusion so our shinobi can better handle them would be fine," Shikamaru admitted, glad he'd asked Inoichi instead of just assuming he could use Orochimaru's own forces against him.

His determination to rescue Sumiko couldn't get the better of him, he had to remain calm.

But this wasn't just about rescuing a city anymore. This was his daughter, his first born child, and damn it all but that mattered more to him than Otogakure and everyone else in it.

They reached the houses nearest the walls and found a spot where they could make a clean jump from the eerily empty houses to the palace walls.

Shikamaru went first, quickly using shadow tendrils to grasp the two nearest guards and force them to quietly thrust their swords into each other's necks.

He signaled for others to come, and silently the shinobi teams made their way down the walls, murdering the armored soldiers of the Sound Shogunate.

It would have been impossible if the wall were fully manned, but it wasn't and Shikamaru didn't for a moment suppose that it was a blessing that his enemy was simply that incompetent.

He smelled a trap, but the sensors had yet to signal the approach or even presence of an enemy shinobi, let alone one of the Five.

A careful glance over the wall into the courtyard bellow showed him that the enemy had a number of guards patrolling but that they were actually moving inside the castle in squads.

Shikamaru let his mind work on that for a moment before Naomasa came to him and said, "This section of the wall is clear, Sensei. Do we clear the rest of the wall?"

"The rest of the squads will, but _we _won't. Hibari," Shikamaru told a shinobi from Konohamaru's generation, "watch these walls and make sure no other monsters get out, intercept any Shinobi that try to cause trouble for our friends in the city. When our allies arrive tell Naruto-sensei to hit the place as hard as he can with everything he has left."

The young woman nodded and rushed off, Shikamaru turned to his immediate squad and said, "Daisuke, Inoichi, get yourselves into a pair of uniforms and watch for the changing of the guard. When the next watch comes let me know. Naomasa, you stay with me and be ready."

The Shinobi went about following Shikamaru's orders and he stared at the courtyard quietly as he quickly threw the robe and armor of one of the fallen soldiers over his own clothes.

Once Nao had done the same he glanced over the wall and whispered, "What do we do when the next watch comes?"

"It depends on how soon they arrive," Shikamaru said. "I'm hoping we can just walk right into the palace in these disguises, but if they take too long we'll have to find another way inside. For now just sit tight. Once we're inside the other squads will guard the north, east, west and south and Hibari's unit will guard the gates. With any luck we'll get to the control room and give Naruto the last form of support he'd ever expect and shove the Emperor's own twisted scheme down his own throat. "

Nao hesitated for a moment, then said, "Even if we win . . . this whole part of the city is dead. If we hadn't come-"

"Now's not the time to think about that." Shikamaru said, and then added for the boy's peace of mind, "most of them probably ran."

"But with the shinobi fighting from earlier . . ." Nao whispered, "a lot of them would have just dug in and waited for the Emperor's soldiers to protect them. How could he do this to his own subjects?"

"To force us to act too soon." Shikamaru said calmly. "Unfortunately he did the one thing we couldn't ignore, we've been playing the game his way since we arrived, which is why it's about time we stole the initiative."

"Guess we shouldn't have gotten here early." Nao said. "Strange as it might sound, if we'd arrived tomorrow instead there might not have been-"

"But we didn't." Shikamaru interrupted. "You're a Jounin, now, Naomasa. You know better than to harp on 'what if' scenarios. Just focus on getting Inoichi to the control room, and no matter _who _gets in your way I expect you to perform the duty of a Jounin, Ishida Naomasa."

"I understand." Naomasa said, but Shikamaru wasn't about to take the chance that Naomasa was just saying the words.

"I need to be sure that you do, Ishida." Shikamaru said firmly, "Any other time your compassion might be admirable but tonight it's a part of you that you'll need to leave behind. Right now my daughter is in that place and as much as I want to rescue her I know we need to win this battle or we'll lose this war. That means a lot of people are going to have to die, Naomasa, or even more will in the long run."

"I understand." Naomasa repeated, and there was a definite edge entering his voice now.

Shikamaru decided to press home the point, adding, "Hijiri's daughter is in there too, don't forget. Or does that not matter to you?"

"It matters." Naomasa said, a harsh, angry light entering his eyes as he glared at Shikamaru.

"Then remember it." Shikamaru said, meeting his glare with one of his own, "And remember this too, Nao; when the civilians outside these walls were beset by monsters, when their screams carried over these walls every last soldier in that courtyard stood there and did nothing."

Nao's expression was dangerous, and Shikamaru hoped he hadn't pushed the boy to the point of recklessness.

Naomasa turned his gaze back to the courtyard and said, "I know you're concerned for your daughter. But I also know what has to be done, and I told you I'd do it. Don't question me again."

"I needed to be sure, don't look for criticism where there's only concern." Shikamaru warned him.

Naomasa didn't answer at first; he just took a fallen katana from one of the dead guards.

At length he whispered, "I shouldn't have to show you or anyone else my worth. I've bled for Konoha and for you long enough. I know the value of life, that doesn't make me a pacifist or a coward, Nara. So when I say 'don't question me again' I'm not asking as your subordinate, or your student, I'm telling you, as a soldier who has fought the same battles as you and bled just as you have, as a man whose entire family was held in there, whose sister was cut into and experimented on, I am _telling _you that I know what has to be done, and I will do it. If you don't know me well enough to know that-"

Shikamaru put a firm hand on Naomasa's shoulder and hissed, "I'm not going to salve your ego, Ishida. I told you not to look for criticism where there's only concern. Not all of those of us who go into that palace are coming out again, and if you hesitate at all you're going to be a name on a monument of heroes. You've fought, you've bled, so has _everyone else _on this wall, and a lot of them still aren't going to see the dawn. I'm not telling you to become a berserker, just don't hesitate."

Naomasa's expression didn't change, but Shikamaru hadn't expected it to. He didn't care if Naomasa was angry, in fact he rather preferred it, but he also didn't want his student getting himself killed trying to prove something.

Daisuke crept over to them, cutting short any delayed retort Naomasa might have made by telling them, "The guard's changing."

"Then it's time we got moving." Shikamaru said, pulling the helmet low over his face and following Daisuke and Naomasa down one of the towers to the ground level where Inoichi waited, looking like a surprisingly convincing officer.

A team of disguised Jounin waited too, to make sure the relief squad didn't live long enough to notice their dead comrades on the wall.

And with that accomplished Nara Shikamaru and his team set foot in the courtyard of the Emperor's palace. Unopposed they walked calmly through the front doors looking for all the world as if they belonged there.

**To Be Continued . . .**


End file.
